Testing the accuracy of timing reports in visual timing tasks with a consumer-grade digital camera.
This study tested the accuracy of a visual timing task using a readily available and relatively inexpensive consumer grade digital camera. A visual inspection time task was recorded using short high-speed video clips and the timing as reported by the task's program was compared to the timing as recorded in the video clips. Discrepancies in these two timing reports were investigated further and based on display refresh rate, a decision was made whether the discrepancy was large enough to affect the results as reported by the task. In this particular study, the errors in timing were not large enough to impact the results of the study. The procedure presented in this article offers an alternative method for performing a timing test, which uses readily available hardware and can be used to test the timing in any software program on any operating system and display.
Health and Rehabilitation Sciences, Western University, London, ON, Canada, N6A 3K7. rsmyth5@uwo.ca.|Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western University, London, ON, Canada. rsmyth5@uwo.ca.
Rachael E
RE
Smyth
Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western University, London, ON, Canada.|National Centre for Audiology, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
Janis
J
Oram Cardy
Communication Sciences and Disorders, Western University, London, ON, Canada.|National Centre for Audiology, Western University, London, ON, Canada.
David
D
Purcell
D035841:Behavioral Research / Q000295:instrumentation*; D003657:Decision Making; D006801:Humans; D011930:Reaction Time; D012984:Software; D014741:Video Recording / Q000295:instrumentation*
Consumer grade hardware; Visual timing accuracy; Visual timing errors; Visual timing test