Inspection Time and High-Speed Ball Games

Abstract

It has been suggested that successful batsmen in cricket are not distinguished by their fast speed of visual information intake. A study is presented in which a season's batting averages for twenty regular cricketers, all members of the same local team, were correlated with the cricketers' visual inspection times. The correlation was -0.63 (p less than 0.005), suggesting that the successful batsmen were faster at picking up information from briefly presented visual displays. When the age factor was eliminated, the partial correlation between inspection time and batting average remained significant at -0.52 (p less than 0.01). This finding is discussed with respect to the sources of information available from a ball in flight.

Probing Expert Anticipation with the Temporal Occlusion Paradigm: Experimental Investigations of Some Methodological Issues

“…However, it may be presumptuous to attribute a change in performance across successive occlusion conditions solely to the specific addition of new information in the display, as the later occlusion conditions not only provide more information but also an extended viewing period and hence a greater overall time in which to process visual information from the unfolding display. It is conceivable that experts and novices may differ in their capability to use, or their dependence on, this extended viewing and processing time (e.g., Adam & Wilberg, 1992;Deary & Mitchell, 1989). Confirmation of the prevailing assumption of active information pick-up from later occlusion conditions is required through demonstration that similar patterns of prediction accuracy improvement, as have been previously observed for instances in which the total viewing period progressively increases from the earlier to the later occlusion conditions, also occur for instances where the total viewing period is kept constant across the different occlusion conditions.…”

Individual differences in visual information processing rate and the prediction of performance differences in team sports: A preliminary investigation

“…The backward-masking task used in this study to measure speed of visual information processing minimizes both the role of motoric output processes and the role of subjective speed and/or accuracy biases potentially contaminating performance outcome. It may not be surprising, then, that one of the few studies demonstrating a link between batting performance in cricket and speed of visual information processing (Deary and Mitchell, 1989), used a perceptual task which included a backward mask. Thus, the results of Deary and Mitchell's (1989) study and the results of the present study may be taken as evidence that the concepts of visual information processing ability and sporting ability are not unrelated and that previous studies may have failed to measure successfully the concept of rate of visual information processing.…”

“…It may not be surprising, then, that one of the few studies demonstrating a link between batting performance in cricket and speed of visual information processing (Deary and Mitchell, 1989), used a perceptual task which included a backward mask. Thus, the results of Deary and Mitchell's (1989) study and the results of the present study may be taken as evidence that the concepts of visual information processing ability and sporting ability are not unrelated and that previous studies may have failed to measure successfully the concept of rate of visual information processing. We recommend, therefore, that future studies of the relationship between visual information processing and sporting ability make use of the backward-masking paradigm.…”

“…Galbraith and Gliddon (1972), Mosley (1981) and Baumeister et al (1984) found support for intelligence-related differences in visual information processing rates among high-and low-IQ subjects. Importantly, Deary and Mitchell (1989) reported that successful batsmen in cricket were faster at picking up information from briefly presented visual displays than less successful batsmen.…”

“…The assumption behind this speculation is that athletes who possess the ability to process more visual information in a shorter period of time than their competitc r s will have an advantage. This advantage can take two forms (Deary and Mitchell, 1989); perceptually quick athletes may instruct their motor effector processes sooner and/or they may provide the decision processes with more detailed information, increasing the chances of an appropriate response.…”