A novel method to measure the response characteristic of gas sensors is presented. Using single crystals as a model system, their response characteristics are examined and compared with those of sputtered SrTiO3 thin-film oxygen sensors at temperatures of 800-1000-degrees-C and frequencies of 10(-3) - 10(2) Hz. The measurement of the kinetic behaviour in this frequency range allows us to distinguish between behaviour controlled by surface transfer reaction or volume diffusion. Whereas the response characteristics of thick single crystals are dominated by diffusion, the oxygen transfer reaction at the solid-gas interface becomes the rate-determining step for thin single crystals and sputtered films of SrTiO3.