Areas:

Primary Research Interests Cognitive and perceptual factors affecting sport performance. Learning and memory in the classroom and online environments.

Projects:

Current Projects The science of free-throw distraction. The effectiveness of different online lecture formats. Recently Completed Projects Attentional Style of Basketball Players This research examined the validity of static and dynamic measures at assessing the attentional styles of basketball players varying in expertise. In Experiment 1, 34 undergraduates completed the Group Embedded Figures Test (GEFT) as a static measure of attentional style, and attempted 50 jump shots with or without defenders present. In Experiment 2, for 15 NCAA and 15 NBA games, data were collected on the outcome and defenders of every jump shot. GEFT scores did not differentiate novice and expert players. However, with the dynamic measure based on susceptibility to distraction, players with high school experience were more field dependent than novices, whereas the NCAA and NBA players did not differ. These results suggest that dynamic measures of attentional style have greater predictive validity in sports, and that field-dependent processing abilities develop early and then plateau in basketball. Attentional Style of Athletes in Team and Individual Sports This research examined the validity of traditional and action-based measures of attentional style of athletes in team and individual sports. Undergraduates completed the Group Embedded Figures Test, the Rod-and-Frame Test, a standard target-throwing task, and a peripheral vision target-throwing task. The only significant correlation was between experience in team sports and performance on the peripheral vision target task, consistent with experienced players in team sports having better peripheral vision and an ability to distribute their attentional resources. These results imply that experienced players in team sports may be more field dependent than novices, and that an action-based measure has greater ecological validity and discrimination ability than traditional measures at determining their attentional style. Motion-Induced Errors in Judging a Baseball's Destination This research examined the influence of irrelevant reference frames on estimates of ball destination. In 3 experiments, confederate base runners and fielders served as distracter stimuli while balls were rolled from home plate to random locations along a barrier hidden under an elevated tarp between first and second base. Stationary participants estimated the position that the ball would exit from under the tarp if there were no barrier, whereas running participants ran along the back edge of the barrier and touched the top of the tarp above where they believed the ball would exit. Estimates of ball destination were significantly biased in the direction opposite to the confederates' motion for stationary participants, but were accurate for running participants. These findings are consistent with other perception-action dissociations, and show that relative motion effects can occur in a naturalistic setting. A Naive Conceptual Galileo Bias in Action This research introduced a new naïve physics belief, the Galileo bias, whereby people ignore air resistance and falsely believe that all objects fall at the same rate. Survey results revealed that this bias is held by many and is surprisingly strongest for those with physics instruction. In 2 experiments, participants dropped ball sets varying in volume and/or mass from a height of 10m, with the goal of both balls hitting the ground simultaneously. When the task was difficult, participants adopted a single strategy consistent with the Galileo bias. On a simpler task, participants improved across trials, but a post-experimental survey showed that many still maintained the inaccurate Galileo bias. Human and Robotic Catching of Dropped Balls and Balloons This research examined the optical behavior of fielders and robotic simulations in cases where a target projectile is dropped. Robotic simulations indicated that robots may either attempt to maintain the initial downward optical velocity, or try to move fast enough to reverse the optical direction of the ball (when possible). Humans generally selected a running path that did not allow the image of the projectile to descend, which suggests that fielders try to maintain a rising optical trajectory even in the extreme case of falling balls with initial downward optical trajectories. Independence and Separability of Volume and Mass in the Size Weight Illusion This research evaluated the perceptual independence and separability of volume and mass with dynamic and haptic touch with and without vision. A feature-complete factorial design was used, and data were analyzed by tests of response proportions and multidimensional signal detection analyses. As the amount of sensory input increases, an increase in perceptual separability and a decrease in decisional separability occur, due to a stronger expectation of perceived heaviness based on the natural correlation of volume and mass.