Critical Time Intervals for Taking in Flight Information in a Ball-Catching Task

Abstract
A ball-catching task in which the ball was caused to enter on a parabolic flight path by means of a mechanical apparatus was administered to 36 male students between the ages of 18 and 40 years. An electronic device enabled the ball to be illuminated for predetermined temporal intervals during its flight. Results indicated that in this relatively unpredictable task opportunity to watch the ball for longer periods of time resulted in increased catching success. Results are discussed in relation to previous experimental work in which the ball was on a more predictable trajectory (since output information was available) and are related to the perceptual moment hypothesis.

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