{"id":1549,"date":"2013-06-07T11:01:38","date_gmt":"2013-06-07T11:01:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/?page_id=1549"},"modified":"2026-03-26T11:35:15","modified_gmt":"2026-03-26T16:35:15","slug":"hicks-law","status":"publish","type":"page","link":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/hicks-law\/","title":{"rendered":"Hick&#8217;s Law"},"content":{"rendered":"\n\t\t\t<div id=\"mmDeferVideoEncompass_xSn8-7tDWYk\" style=\"position: relative;\">\n\t\t\t<picture>\n\t\t\t\t<source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.webp\" type=\"image\/webp\">\n\t\t\t\t<source srcset=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.png\" type=\"image\/jpeg\"> \n\t\t\t\t<img fetchpriority=\"high\" decoding=\"async\" loading=\"eager\" id=\"videoThumbnailImage_xSn8-7tDWYk\" data-source-videoID=\"xSn8-7tDWYk\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/circle-play-duotone.png\" alt=\"Hick&#8217;s Law Video\" height=\"464\" width=\"825\" class=\"size-full\" data-matomo-title = \"Hick&#8217;s Law\">\n\t\t\t<\/picture>\n\t\t\t<\/div>\n\t\t\t<style>img#videoThumbnailImage_xSn8-7tDWYk:hover {cursor:pointer;} img#videoThumbnailImage_xSn8-7tDWYk {background-size:contain;background-image:url(\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/02\/63-hick-s-law-1-1.webp\");}<\/style>\n\t\t\t<script defer>\n\t\t\t  jQuery(\"img#videoThumbnailImage_xSn8-7tDWYk\").click(function() {\n\t\t\t\tlet videoId = jQuery(this).attr(\"data-source-videoID\");\n\t\t\t\tlet helpTag = '<div id=\"mmDeferVideoYTMessage_xSn8-7tDWYk\" style=\"display: none;position: absolute;top: -24px;width: 100%;text-align: center;\"><span style=\"font-style: italic;font-size: small;border-top: 1px solid #fc0;\">Having trouble? <a href=\"https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v='+videoId+'\" target=\"_blank\">Click here to watch on YouTube.<\/a><\/span><\/div>';\n\t\t\t\tlet tag = document.createElement(\"iframe\");\n\t\t\t\ttag.id = \"yt\" + videoId;\n\t\t\t\ttag.src = \"https:\/\/www.youtube-nocookie.com\/embed\/\" + videoId + \"?autoplay=1&controls=1&wmode=opaque&rel=0&egm=0&iv_load_policy=3&hd=0&enablejsapi=1\";\n\t\t\t\ttag.frameborder = 0;\n\t\t\t\ttag.allow = \"autoplay; fullscreen\";\n\t\t\t\ttag.width = this.width;\n\t\t\t\ttag.height = this.height;\n\t\t\t\ttag.setAttribute(\"data-matomo-title\",\"Hick&#8217;s Law\");\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoEncompass_xSn8-7tDWYk\").html(tag);\n\t\t\t\tjQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoEncompass_xSn8-7tDWYk\").prepend(helpTag);\n\t\t\t\tsetTimeout(function(){jQuery(\"div#mmDeferVideoYTMessage_xSn8-7tDWYk\").css(\"display\", \"block\");}, 2000);\n\t\t\t  });\n\t\t\t  \n\t\t\t<\/script>\n\t\t\n<p><script>\nfunction 5tI_Function() {\n  var x = document.getElementById(\"5tI\");\n  if (x.style.display === \"none\") {\n    x.style.display = \"block\";\n  } else {\n    x.style.display = \"none\";\n  }\n}\n<\/script><\/p>\n<div class=\"moc-toc hide-on-desktop hide-on-tablet\">\n<div><button onclick=\"5tI_Function()\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" src=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/12\/toc2.svg\" width=\"16\" height=\"16\" alt=\"show or hide table of contents\"><\/button><\/p>\n<p>On this page<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<nav id=\"5tI\" style=\"display:none;\">\n<ul>\n<li class=\"toc-h2\"><a href=\"#Calculating_Reaction_Time\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Calculating Reaction Time<\/a><\/li>\n<li class=\"toc-h2\"><a href=\"#Types_of_Reaction_Time\" class=\"smooth-scroll\">Types of Reaction Time<\/a><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<\/nav>\n<\/div>\n<div class=\"accordion\"><input id=\"transcript\" type=\"checkbox\" class=\"spoiler_button\" \/><label for=\"transcript\">Transcript<\/label>\n<div class=\"spoiler\" id=\"transcript-spoiler\">\n<p>Hey, guys! Welcome to this Mometrix video on the Hick-Hyman law, more commonly known as Hick\u2019s law.<\/p>\n<h2><span id=\"Calculating_Reaction_Time\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Calculating Reaction Time<\/h2>\n<p>\nThis law is named after the American psychologist Ray Hyman and the British psychologist William Hick.<\/p>\n<p>Hick\u2019s law states that the time it takes for a person to make a decision increases as the amount of possible choices increase. So, essentially, Hick\u2019s law illustrates one\u2019s ability to make decisions with different amounts of uncertainty.<\/p>\n<p>To fully understand this, there are a few terms you need to be familiar with:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Reaction time:<\/strong> Reaction time refers to the time between the onset of a stimulus and the start of the response.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Movement time:<\/strong> Movement time is the time it takes to complete the onset of a movement.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Response time:<\/strong> Response time is the time it takes to process information and then to make a response.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><span id=\"Types_of_Reaction_Time\" class=\"m-toc-anchor\"><\/span>Types of Reaction Time<\/h2>\n<p>\nNow, there are different types of reaction times.<\/p>\n<p>There is the <strong>simple reaction<\/strong>, which is relevant to a single stimulus and a single possible response.<\/p>\n<p>Then there is <strong>choice reaction time<\/strong>, which means that there are several stimuli given, but only one must be selected for response; and as Hick\u2019s law states, the more choices a person has, the slower their reaction time.<\/p>\n<p>There are several factors that affect reaction time:<\/p>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>Age:<\/strong> Someone\u2019s age can play a role into how fast or how slow they react. As a person gets older, their reaction time becomes slower.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Gender:<\/strong> On average, males have faster reaction times than females do; however, reaction times reduce less with age in females than they do with males.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Stimulus intensity:<\/strong> Increasing the stimulus intensity will also improve one&#8217;s reaction time. For example, a loud bang will increase our reaction time more so than a more quiet bang.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Height:<\/strong> Taller people will have slower reactions, because of the greater distance the information has to travel from a person&#8217;s brain to the active muscles. Shorter sprinters tend to win shorter races.<\/li>\n<li><strong>Level of Alertness:<\/strong> being more alert can improve reaction time.<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>Hick actually came up with an equation to calculate reaction time:<\/p>\n<div class=\"examplesentence\">reaction time = movement time + processing speed \u00d7 log\\(^2(n)\\)<\/div>\n<p>\n&nbsp;<br \/>\nIn this case, \\(n\\) is the <a class=\"ylist\" href=\"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/identifying-variables\/\">variable<\/a> for the number of choices.<\/p>\n<p>You can find application for Hick\u2019s law wherever you look. Advertising companies use it to determine features on their websites, restaurants use it to determine certain features on their menus, it\u2019s used to output effective commercials, and so on.<\/p>\n<p>I hope this video was helpful. See you next time!<\/p>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":91006,"parent":0,"menu_order":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","template":"","meta":{"footnotes":""},"class_list":{"0":"post-1549","1":"page","2":"type-page","3":"status-publish","4":"has-post-thumbnail","6":"page_category-mescellaneous-biology-videos","7":"page_type-video","8":"subject_matter-science"},"aioseo_notices":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1549","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/page"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1549"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1549\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":251764,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/pages\/1549\/revisions\/251764"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/91006"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.mometrix.com\/academy\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1549"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}