Abstract
This study investigated the effectiveness of using visual cues to highlight the seams of baseballs to improve the hitting of curveballs. Five undergraduate varsity baseball team candidates served as subjects. Behavior change was assessed through an alternating treatments design involving unmarked balls and two treatment conditions that included baseballs with 1/4-in. and 1/8-in. orange stripes marking the seams of the baseballs. Results indicated that subjects hit a greater percentage of marked than unmarked balls. These results suggest that the addition of visual cues may be a significant and beneficial technique to enhance hitting performance. Further research is suggested regarding the training procedures, effect of feedback, rate of fading cues, generalization to live pitching, and generalization to other types of pitches.
Full text
PDF
Selected References
These references are in PubMed. This may not be the complete list of references from this article.
- TERRACE H. S. Errorless transfer of a discrimination across two continua. J Exp Anal Behav. 1963 Apr;6:223–232. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1963.6-223. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]
- Touchette P. E. The effects of graduated stimulus change on the acquisition of a simple discrimination in severely retarded boys. J Exp Anal Behav. 1968 Jan;11(1):39–48. doi: 10.1901/jeab.1968.11-39. [DOI] [PMC free article] [PubMed] [Google Scholar]