Effects of smoking on visual and auditory reaction time
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Date
1997
Authors
Wahome, E. N.
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Kenyatta University
Abstract
This study was conducted to determine the effects of three different levels of
nicotine (low, medium and high) on visual and auditory reaction time of twenty
regular male University smokers aged 18 and 42 years. Subjects participated
in three sessions with an Automatic Performance Analyzer used to record the
reaction time. During the first session, the subjects were tested using low
nicotine level. The second session involved the use of medium=nicotine level,
while the third session consisted of the use of high nicotine level. One-way
analysis of variance (ANOVA) was used to determine if a significant difference
existed among the means of low, medium and high nicotine levels in both light
and sound variables. Significant F-ratios of 7.48 and 3.803 were found for
the light and sound variables, respectively (p< O. OS). In both variables
Duncan's multiple range was used to follow up the significance. This means
that three different levels of nicotine affected both visual and auditory reaction
times. The medium level was found to have a faster reaction time than both
low and high nicotine levels. Pearson correlation was used to determine the
relationship between the reaction time for light and sound variables. A
probability value of 0.054 found was not statistically significant, which means
there is some relationship between the visual and auditory reaction time scores
at three different levels of nicotine i.e. the reaction time for the sound variable
is faster than for light variable at all the three different levels of nicotine.
Description
A paper presented at the Africa Association for Health, Physical Education, Recreation, Sport and dance 3rd Scientific Congress held on 11th - 15th September, 1997 in Nairobi, Kenya
Keywords
Reaction time, Smokers, Low, Medium and high nicotine levels