Behavior of college baseball players in a virtual batting task.

Full Abstract

A baseball batting simulation was used to investigate the information used to hit a baseball. Measures of spatial and temporal swing accuracy were used to test whether batters (a) use speed to estimate pitch height, (b) initiate a constant swing duration at a fixed time to contact, (c) are influenced by the history of previous pitches and pitch count, and (d) use rotation direction. Batters were experienced college players. Pitch speed variance led to predictable spatial errors, and spatial accuracy was worse than temporal accuracy. Swing duration was generally variable. The history of the previous 3 pitches and the pitch count had significant effects on accuracy, and performance improved when rotation cues were added. There were significant effects of expertise on hitting strategy.

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Author information

Author/s: Gray, Rob (R);

Affiliation: Department of Applied Psychology, Arizona State University East, Mesa 85212, USA. robgray@asu.edu

Journal and publication information

Publication Type: Clinical Trial; Journal Article; Randomized Controlled Trial

Journal: Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance (J Exp Psychol Hum Percept Perform), published in United States. (Language: eng)

Reference: 2002-Oct; vol 28 (issue 5) : pp 1131-48

Dates: Created 2002/11/07; Completed 2003/02/26; Revised 2004/11/17;

PMID: 12421060, status: MEDLINE (last retrieval date: 11/6/2008)

Sourced from the National Library of Medicine. Abstract text and other information may be subject to copyright.

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