Abstract

In academia a unified definition of concepts and terms that helps with communication between scientists and literature searches is crucial. However, in the literature in Spanish there is no unified term to denote the sum of reaction time and movement time. The review of the literature in Spanish shows that the commonly used expression is “respuesta de reacción”, which was initially used in the book Tiempo de reacción y deporte by Josep Roca (1983) and has subsequently been translated into English as reaction response by Spanish authors. However, in the international literature temps de réponse or temps total de réponse is used in French and response time or total response time in English. After searching international databases, we found that the term “respuesta de reacción” (reaction response) is not used outside the Spanish-speaking world. Additionally, this article also discusses whether its meaning really fits the concept it purports to represent. Finally, we suggest using the terms “response time” or “total response time”, which are better suited to their literal meaning and the international literature