The average simple visual reaction time for adults is roughly 200 to 300 milliseconds: the time to press a button when a light you are waiting for comes on. In a study of 1,469 adults, the mean was 231 ms. An online test adds your screen, mouse or touch screen and browser on top, so expect a higher number there.
You can check yours now with the free reaction time test: five attempts, median time in milliseconds, no download.
What is a good reaction time?
A good simple reaction time on a computer is anything around a quarter of a second or faster, measured on the same device you used before. In the largest modern lab study, by David Woods and colleagues (2015), the mean was 231 ms, and the youngest group (18 to 24) averaged about 218 ms. After subtracting the delay of their monitor and mouse, those figures fell to about 213 ms and 200 ms.
Published averages vary more than most "reaction time charts" admit. Woods and colleagues list studies ranging from 233 ms to nearly 400 ms, and one large UK study (Deary and Der, 2005) reported a mean of 328 ms. Equipment and method explain much of that spread, which is why a single number from a chart tells you less than your own score over time.
- Woods et al. (2015), 1,469 adults aged 18 to 65: 231 ms (213 ms after hardware correction)
- Woods et al. (2015), youngest group, 18 to 24: about 218 ms (about 200 ms corrected)
- Brebner and Welford (1980), college-age adults, as cited in a University of Wisconsin report: 190 ms
- Deary and Der (2005), UK adults, as cited by Woods et al.: 328 ms
Many pages print tables of reaction time by age in 10-year bands without saying which study each row comes from. The figures above come from named studies, and the age effect below comes from the same data.
How does reaction time change with age?
Reaction time slows with age, but in healthy adults the change is small: about half a millisecond per year. Woods and colleagues measured 0.55 ms per year in adults aged 18 to 65, and 0.45 ms per year in a second group aged 18 to 82. Across 40 years, that adds roughly 20 ms.
The slowing came mostly from the movement, not from noticing the light. The time to detect the signal stayed flat across ages, while the time to start the press rose. An old driving study points the same way: Elliott and Louttit (1937) tested about 700 people at a fair and found that braking reaction times rose with age (correlation 0.37), and that age mattered more than driving experience.
Children are slower than adults while their motor control develops.
What is the difference between simple and choice reaction time?
Simple reaction time is one signal and one response. Choice reaction time is several possible signals, each with its own response, so you must first tell them apart. Choice reactions are always slower.
The Dutch physiologist Franciscus Donders compared the two in the 1860s and used the difference to estimate how long a mental step takes. A century later, W. E. Hick (1952) and Ray Hyman (1953) showed that choice reaction time grows with the logarithm of the number of options. This is Hick's law: going from 2 to 4 options adds about the same time as going from 4 to 8. Later work shows the rule bends with practice and familiar responses (van 't Wout, 2018).
The Omni Brain reaction time test is a simple reaction task. The Reaction game in the app adds choice reactions, where you must pick the right response before you press.
Are you faster to sound than to light?
Yes, most people react faster to a sound than to a light, by roughly 10 to 50 ms depending on the setup. Brebner and Welford (1980) reported about 160 ms for sound and 190 ms for light in college-age adults. A small study by Shelton and Kumar (2010), with 14 people, measured 284 ms and 331 ms.
The gap shrinks in complex tasks. In Elliott and Louttit's 1937 braking test, drivers reacted to a horn in 0.514 seconds and to a red light in 0.524 seconds, a difference of one hundredth of a second.
What is a normal reaction time for drivers?
Braking in traffic takes far longer than pressing a button: about 0.7 to 1.5 seconds. The UK Highway Code's stopping distances assume a thinking time of 0.67 seconds. The road-safety charity Brake cites the Transport Research Laboratory (TRL) for an average of 1.5 seconds.
Marc Green's widely cited review (2000) put brake reaction at about 1.25 seconds for unexpected events and 1.5 seconds for surprise events. A published commentary on that review cites on-road data where unalerted drivers braked in 1.0 to 1.3 seconds. Driving involves looking, deciding and moving a foot, so a fast score on a button test does not convert into a fast stop.
How fast are gamers and athletes?
Athletes and experienced gamers often test faster, but the reliable numbers are fewer than the internet suggests. In a study cited in a University of Wisconsin report, NCAA Division I football players averaged 268 ms on a computer test (Eckner, Kutcher and Richardson, 2010). That is within the normal adult range.
Sprinters are the extreme case, and they react to sound with their legs. World Athletics (formerly the IAAF) treats any start under 100 ms as a false start. A 2009 study it commissioned, as reported by Blur Busters, measured Finnish national-level sprinters with average leg reactions of about 73 to 79 ms, which suggests the limit may be too strict.
Pages that claim competitive gamers react in 150 to 220 ms rarely cite a source. Gamers also tend to own fast monitors and mice, which lowers their measured time before their reflexes come into it.
Why is my online reaction time slower?
Your score includes the delay of your device. Woods and colleagues measured 11 ms for their monitor and 6.8 ms for their mouse, 17.8 ms in total. They note that hardware and software can add up to 100 ms in some setups (Neath and colleagues, 2011). A USB mouse alone can add up to about 8 ms depending on its polling rate.
Phones add their own delay through the touch screen and display, and you hold the phone differently each time. Compare scores on the same device. A phone result 30 ms slower than your laptop result does not mean your reflexes are worse.
How can you improve your reaction time?
You can improve your simple reaction time a little, mainly by staying alert, practising the task and removing device delay. The evidence for large gains is weak, because reaction time is one of the most stable measures in cognitive science.
- Practise the same task. Familiarity helps: Woods and colleagues cite work showing that some group differences shrink as people get used to the test. Practice also teaches you not to jump the gun, which cuts false starts.
- Test when rested. Tiredness slows reactions, so a score from a late evening after a short night is not your true score. Fatigue shows up even within a session: in the Woods study, times rose from 228 ms in the first block of trials to 237 ms in the last.
- Do a few warm-up attempts. Lab studies give practice trials before they record, and Woods and colleagues used 20. Take two or three attempts before the ones you count.
- Reduce device delay. A wired mouse, a high refresh-rate monitor and a desktop browser give you lower numbers than a phone. This changes the measurement, not your brain.
In the app, the technique for Reaction is simple: finger ready, mind quiet. Rest your finger just above the screen, stop predicting the signal and breathe out before it comes.
Questions about reaction time
What is the average reaction time for a human?
For a simple visual task, adults average roughly 200 to 300 ms in lab studies, and a large 2015 study found 231 ms. Reacting to a sound is a little faster. Real-world tasks such as braking take 0.7 to 1.5 seconds because they involve deciding as well as moving.
What is the fastest possible human reaction time?
For a finger press to a visual signal, about 150 ms is close to the limit for fast responders. Sprinters reacting to a starting gun with their legs have been measured below 100 ms in a study commissioned by athletics' governing body. Anything far below that in a button test usually means you guessed.
Is 200 ms a good reaction time?
Yes. A simple visual reaction of 200 ms on a normal computer is faster than the averages reported in large studies. On a phone, it would be an excellent score, because phones add delay.
Does reaction time get worse with age?
It slows slightly, by about half a millisecond a year in healthy adults according to Woods and colleagues (2015). Most of the change comes from starting the movement, not from noticing the signal.
Can brain training improve reaction time?
Practice improves your score on the trained task a little, and it helps you avoid false starts. Whether those gains transfer to driving or sport is debated. That is why Omni Brain labels its Reaction game "B, core process" on the science page.
Test and train your reaction speed
Take the free reaction time test now, then try again on the same device next week. To train choice reactions too, Omni Brain's Reaction game adapts its difficulty as you play and is one of the app's short games across eight skills. Download Omni Brain free.