Talk:response time

RFV discussion

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Sum of parts. Definition is wrong. SemperBlotto 07:24, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Hmm. The definition is certainly too narrow, but I'm not sure this is really sum of parts. Consider that it could mean "the time when it is necessary to respond" or "the time at which a response is made" or "the time during which responses are accepted". What it actually refers to is the time elapsed between some action and the response necessitated by that action, such as the time it takes for paramedics to reach an accident after an emergency call is placed, or the measured time in a sensory test between the application of the stimulus and the response of the subject. --EncycloPetey 07:30, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I agree with EP here. Mglovesfun (talk) 11:06, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

I have added the earliest clear-cut citations from bgc and news that I found (poor dating and too many hits to do the same on scholar). The term seems idiomatic, clearly used almost exclusively with a rather specific meaning. Other dictionaries have varied treatment, many omitting it, some having only one or two supposedly context-specific senses, some having a single unrestricted sense. Early use seems to be about the response of human subjects in the context of medicine, psychology, or education. I think we should start with a generally worded sense and then consider whether there is anything about the term's use in a specific context that merits specialization. The language of 'stimulus' and 'response' of a 'system' seems natural to us now, but wouldn't do full justice to earlier use, IMO. OTOH most of the context-specific use is well captured by differences in what are usually deemed stimuli, a responses, and systems in each context. DCDuring TALK 14:21, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

OK - I've improved the computing sense, and added some more senses. Looks reasonable now, but could do with more quotes. SemperBlotto 15:00, 10 April 2010 (UTC)

Striking, since the requester removed the RFV tag after only a few hours. I've added {{rfquote}}, per his last comment above, but if anyone wants to switch it back to {{rfv}} and re-RFV this, feel free. —Ruakh_TALK 17:20, 4 September 2010 (UTC)