Touch vs Sight vs Hearing

Earlier in the week, one monk asked which of the senses sent their signals fastest.  I did not answer the question at that time and said we would be doing an experiment that would answer his question.  Today was that day.

Groups of monks were given a ruler.  One monk would hold the ruler and another monk (the “catcher”) would place his hand near the bottom of the ruler.  At a random time, the ruler would be dropped and the other monk (the “catcher”) would see the falling ruler and try to catch it.  The monks were also instructed to do the test when the catchers eyes were closed but the dropper said “drop” at the same time the ruler was dropped.  They were also told to do the experiment with the catchers’ eyes closed, but when the ruler was dropped at the same time the catcher was tapped on his foot.

 

For the visual, auditory and touch tests, the monks did three trials and kept track of their data in their journals.  At the end of the experiment, all of the monks put their data up on the white board.  When we examined the data, it was apparent that vision provided the fastest response time, hearing the second fastest response time and touch of the foot the slowest response time.