Assessment of reaction speed and nervous system characteristics: implications for physical exercise selection in humanities students' physical education

Abstract

Background and purpose. The current state of student physical education underscores the growing relevance of tailoring physical exercises to individual interests, abilities, and capabilities. The purpose of the study is to identify the characteristics of the nervous processes of students of humanities (philological and historical) specialties and, on their basis, to develop recommendations for independent physical education. Material and method. We have tested 693 students of the H.S. Skovoroda Kharkiv National Pedagogical University. Among the students was been surveyed, 66 students studied in the specialty “history”, 116 students were future teachers of foreign languages, 154 students were future specialists in Ukrainian philology, the remaining students studied in other specialties. The study was conducted in September 2022 via online testing under the Psychodiagnostics program. Students were tested to determine the latent time of the reaction in different modes: the first mode - determination of the latent time of a simple response to a signal; mode 2 – determination of latent reaction time under feedback conditions. The average value of the latent time of response to exposure and the average value of the quantity of mistakes were determined.Results. Students – future teachers of history, foreign language and Ukrainian language occupy an intermediate position between future teachers of primary (preschool) education and future teachers of fine arts in terms of liveness and endurance of the nervous processes. They have a lower level of liveness and a higher level of endurance of the nervous processes compared to future teachers of preschool and primary education. They also have a higher level of liveness and a lower level of endurance of the nervous processes compared to students - future teachers of fine arts.Conclusions. The study made it possible to identify the characteristics of the nervous processes of students – future teachers of history and philology. In terms of liveness and endurance of the nervous processes, they occupy an intermediate position between students – future specialists in teaching primary school and preschool children and future specialists in the field of fine arts. Physical education classes for students studying in the specialties “history”, “foreign language” and “Ukrainian language” must correspond to the characteristics of their nervous processes. We recommend to future history teachers include more cyclic exercises in their classes that correspond to the property of their nervous processes such as endurance, and we recommend to future teachers of foreign and Ukrainian languages include more outdoor and sports games in their classes; in online learning conditions include more exercises with the ball.