A Comparative Study on Reaction Times Using Visual, Audio, and Haptic Stimuli With Direct, Encoded or Dynamic...

Reaction times are critical for assessing user response efficacy in applications like virtual environments, assistive technologies, and real-time monitoring. This study examines reaction times across visual, audio, and haptic stimuli, categorized into signal path (direct vs. encoded) and task context (static vs. dynamic), among N = 44 participants. Participants were grouped by demographic factors, including age, gender, and education; and lifestyle factors, including videogame and computer use, and physical exercise. We first analyzed observed reaction times and then derived effective reaction times by subtracting measured processing latencies for each delivery condition. Haptic stimuli yielded the fastest observed responses in the direct and dynamic conditions and comparatively low variability across the full sample. After latency correction, encoded haptic produced the shortest effective reaction times, followed by encoded audio, whereas visual stimuli remained the slowest, particularly in the dynamic condition. Exploratory summaries by demographic and lifestyle subgroup suggested some descriptive differences, but these patterns should be interpreted cautiously because several subgroups were small and imbalanced. Overall, the results support haptic cues as a promising channel for rapid-response applications within the specific end-to-end systems evaluated here, offering valuable insights for designing future technologies.