A question about using metacard/runtime to measure response times

[Robert Brenstein]

>Hi,
>
>I downloaded the runtime revolution (2.1.2) evaluation edition, and I am
>interested in programming experiments that measure people's response
>times/latencies to particular events or stimuli. What I need to know is -
>suppose a person initiates some event (e.g. a keypress) at time T. What is
>the degree of or maximum amount of error in the RT that will be recorded by
>the program. As a specific example, suppose I show a word on the screen at
>time T1 (and ask the program to get the milliseconds when this event occurs)
>and wait for the use to press a key on the keyboard which is time T2, and
>then subtract the two to get a response time - what sort of error can I
>expect in these estimates (on the order of milliseconds). Thanks for any
>help you can provide.
>
>Aimee


There is no simple answer to this question because it depends on the 
hardware, OS version, and computer configuration in varying degrees. 
For example, transfer of signal identifying a keypress from the 
keyboard to program can have large variability from the way the 
desktop bus works.

You should search reports on this topic that have been published over 
last several years. One of the journal that had a number of these is 
Behavior Research Methods, Instruments, & Computers.

Robert