Progressive Facilitation of Body Reaction Time Resulting from Increasing Support of Body Weight

Abstract

As counterbalancing the effect of gravity should increase the speed of reaction time (RT), 50 college men completed three discrete RT tests while standing, sitting, and sitting with the weight of the legs supported. Progressive decreases in body weight were accompanied by parallel increases in speed of RT. The RTs of the upper 14% of the group, classified by body weight, did not differ from the lowest 14%. Correlations between body weight and RT within the three RT conditions were not significant.