If you lower your latency by 500ms, you'll also lower your game response time by 1000ms, which corresponds to a second, and so on.
Basically, your response time is 2x the latency which means, if you lower your latency by 250ms, you'll also reduce your game response time by 500ms, which is half a second. On the other hand, your game response time is the time it takes for the data and the corresponding event to reach the game server and then back to your computer. Latency is measured in milliseconds, and a second is composed of 1000 milliseconds.
Latency (in an online gaming context) refers to the average total time that it takes for your computer to send data to the gaming server. Latency is a term that is commonly used in online gaming.