Biology Data Analysis-Does heart rate effect reaction time?

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I plan to do an experiment to try and to discover if there is any link or correlation between heart rate and reaction time.

Reaction time is the ability to respond quickly to a stimulus. It important in many sports and day to day activities, though it is not often measured. Simple reaction time is the time taken between a stimulus and movement e.g., sprint start.
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Heart rate is basically how many times our heart beats in a minute. There are two main measurements of heart rate; resting and active. Resting heart rate is measured when a person is at rest and no physical activity has been undertaken. Active is the opposite. When our hearts contracts, it pumps blood around the body. The faster the heart rate, usually the faster we are breathing meaning that there will be more oxygen and less carbon dioxide in the blood due to the faster gas exchange in the capillaries. The harder the work, the higher our heart beat is due to our muscles needing more oxygen. Pulse is another way for heart rate and is measured in BPM (Beats per Minute).

Athletes need good reaction times to gain a faster start in their races.

I predict that if we have a faster pulse rate, the better our reaction times will be. If you think, when your heart is working faster, you have more blood flowing around your body…including voulentary muscles, there would also be more oxegen. A faster heart rate also produces aderenaline.


The Experiment
In this experiment, 8 girls were tested and 4 boys, 12 people in total. Lesson time was used to carry out this experiment. And we had the classroom and any equiptment in the classroom.

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Firstly we recorded our test buddy’s reaction times when they had a resting heart rate. So we asked them to measure their heart rate over a period of 15 seconds and the multiply it by 4 to get their resting heart rate. We held the top of the ruler between thumb and forefinger (which are about an inch apart). The ruler is then released and the test buddy’s aim is to catch the ruler as quickly as possible. This test was repeated three times.
Our test buddy was then asked to complete as many star jumps as they could in a ...

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This is an average write up, the background information is good but more attention is needed in the analysis of the data and improvements that should be made. 3 stars.