Quiet Eye Duration in Baseball

The purpose of this study is to measure the gaze movements of individuals as they watch videos of a baseball pitcher throwing pitches. The goal will be to determine whether there is an anticipatory movement to the location where the ball is released, and whether this anticipatory movement occurs in experienced baseball players more commonly than in inexperienced players.

20 subjects between 18 and 40 years of age (males and females) will participate. 10 subjects will be required to have experience in baseball or softball at the high school level or above within the last 10 years. A further 10 subjects will be recruited who did not have baseball experience at or above the high school level. Upon entering the laboratory, the experiment will be explained to the subjects. Subjects will be consented. Then, the subject's visual acuity and stereoacuity (depth perception) will be measured. If subjects continue on to the experiment, they will also be asked to complete a short survey on previous baseball experience. Subjects will stand in a batting stance facing a projector screen. They will then participate in trials in which they mimic batting a ball thrown by a pitcher. Six different pitch videos will be shown. The subjects will act as if they are batting the ball (no bat swing will occur) for each video. The movement of the subject's eye will be tracked using an eye tracker.