Cognitive Labs

The Babe had superior reaction time and reflexes, according to a story covered in Yahoo! News today. Columbia University Psychologists gave him a battery of tests 85 years ago and found that he had superior sight and reaction time, and above average reflexes; collectively, these qualities made him great.

GQ Magazine wanted to find out if modern slugger Albert Pujols (known as El Hombre) could match the Babe's legendary psychometric profile.

After being administered a series of tests including a "tap" reaction time test (in which scored in the 99th percentile) Pujols scored very similar to the Babe, and the researchers believe that the unique combination of superior capabilities gave both athletes the edge required to deliver superb performance.

[here is a tap reaction time test from cognitive labs] if you're curious you can try to get your reaction time below 200 milliseconds. A couple people have scored in the 180's today, including someone on myspace.

Another test uses photos of the Babe and Lou Gehrig to check your reaction time! Talk about timing.