Blog Article/Post Caveat (Read First Please: Click the Link)
Simple reaction time (SRT), the minimal time needed to respond to a stimulus, is a basic measure of processing speed.
It is best to remember that SRT is basic and that many factors are involved in how we react and respond to stimuli. Add in that competition along with self-protection, both differ in reaction-response, introduce a lot of stimuli and chemical actions and reactions of the mind/body that also effect the SRT.
The Simple Reaction Time task measures simple reaction time, general alertness and motor speed through delivery of a known stimulus to a known location to elicit a known response.
This is why it is critically important, as you can imagine, to understand the two terms, i.e., what is a reaction and what is a response. The following quotes tell us that reaction is instant and a response is slower along with the why, here is the definitions:
- A reaction is instant. It’s driven by the beliefs, biases, and prejudices of the unconscious mind. When you say or do something “without thinking,” that’s the unconscious mind running the show. A reaction is based in the moment and doesn’t take into consideration long term effects of what you do or say. A reaction is survival-oriented and on some level a defense mechanism. - William James, PhD
- How to train our reactions to be instant is the question.
- Along with beliefs, since beliefs are our realities, biases, and prejudices we must sublet concerns to our perceptions, social beliefs, and various experiences that also effect reactions for to react in an ignorant and immature emotional way often triggers reactions based on social and familia pressures and teachings and perceptions and experiences.
- A response on the other hand usually comes more slowly. It’s based on information from both the conscious mind and unconscious mind. A response will be more “ecological,” meaning that it takes into consideration the well-being of not only you but those around you. It weighs the long term effects and stays in line with your core values. - William James, PhD
- How to train our reactions through the development of responses based on both the conscious and unconscious, or instinct-like, minds, that is the question isn’t it because our training, practice and experiences along with our reality-beliefs must work together, like in yin/yang, to achieve the results necessary for survival, right?
- To ensure the well-being of self and those around you like family and tribal members if you will, must be considered as well as the social fabric of our modern larger societies.
- When we implement our training and practices, hopefully as appropriate responses often reactions rather than appropriate actions, we open ourselves to another best understood aspect of self-protection being the ramifications of the more physical parts of the art of self-protection, especially through martial arts.
“A reaction and a response may look exactly alike. But they feel different.” - William James This begs me to question, “Can one respond with the speed of reaction or are they always two separate and distinct things?” Responses are slower due to the conscious-unconscious thing while reactions involve the unconscious and can you actually train the unconscious to make a response into a reaction? Is this why many assume reactions and responses are alike?
The unconscious can be an awesome partner to the conscious mind. It can provide the juice and energy to accomplish what you want. And, when it’s not freaking out trying to ensure your survival, it has a lot of intuitive wisdom to offer. To get to that point though, you need to spend some time working with the unconscious, helping it release the limiting beliefs, constrictive assumptions and negative emotions that no longer serve you. - William James
This last quote is telling, a great understanding of what it is we need to achieve both psychologically and physically to achieve what I term as a faster process or a faster process through the OODA loop so that we combine the conscious with the unconscious along with overcoming the natural instinct-like reactions and responses of the lizard or that creature that has been with us all these centuries ensuring the very survival of the fittest. In this instance one whose knowledge and ability to apply its understanding to our very lives … survives!
Something’s to think about; something’s to meditate over; something’s to consider; something’s to mind matter!
For reference and sources and professionals go here: Bibliography (Click the link)
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