Gaze Tracking of Pitched Balls in Coupled and Uncoupled Tasks

Studies suggest that anticipation in sports-related tasks is better if the task maintains the coupling of perception and action required in competition. Study 1 addressed the question of whether gaze tracking varies between coupled tasks in baseball and softball batters. Fifteen subjects executed either a coupled task (partially swinging a bat at an approaching ball) or an uncoupled task (predicting the passing height of an approaching ball). The ball was stopped by a net 8 feet (2.44 m) in front of the subject. Rapid gaze shifts occurred for 53.0% of the pitches in the uncoupled task, and for 39.7% of the pitches in the coupled task (p = 0.039). The number of predictive gaze shifts toward the terminal ball location in each condition (i.e., the expected location of bat-ball contact in the coupled condition, and the observer in the uncoupled condition) did not vary between the conditions (p = 0.388). Study 2 examined whether gaze fixations on the net found in Study 1 occurred because passing height judgments could not be improved at distances closer than 8 feet from the observer. Passing height judgments were lower when the ball was allowed to pass by the observer, suggesting that subjects processed trajectory information within 8 feet.