Finger Tap Rates

Description

Finger tap rates after drug administration

Format

A data frame with 12 observations on the following 4 variables.

Subject

Subject code (I, II, III, or IV)

Drug

Drug administered (Ca=caffeine, Pl=placebo, or Th=theobromine)

TapRate

Finger taps in a fixed time interval

Details

Scientists Scott and Chen, published research that compared the effects of caffeine with those of theobromine (a similar chemical found in chocolate) and with those of a placebo. Their experiment used four human subjects, and took place over several days. Each day each subject swallowed a tablet containing one of caffeine, theobromine, or the placebo. Two hours later they were timed while tapping a finger in a specified manner (that they had practiced earlier, to control for learning effects). The response is the number of taps in a fixed time interval.

Renamed FranticFingers in second edition.

Source

The data was found in Statistics in Biology, Vol. 1, by C. I. Bliss (1967), New York: McGraw Hill.

The original article is Scott, C. and Chen, K. (1944) "Comparison of the action of 1-ethyl theobromine and caffeine in animals and man," Journal of Pharmacological Experimental Therapy, v. 82, pp 89-97.