A study using temporal occlusion to investigate anticipation in baseball catchers when required to give directions on play

Using a temporal occlusion paradigm, the present study examined the anticipation of baseball catchers in a situation where they were required to give directions to teammates on play. Collegiate baseball catchers and fielders (n = 10 in each group) watched a series of video images, recorded from the catcher’s viewpoint, showing a simulated sacrifice bunt to the pitcher with no outs and a runner at first base. Each video image was occluded at 0 ms (T1), 370 ms (T2), 730 ms (T3), or 1100 ms (T4) after the moment of bat-ball impact. After viewing each occluded video image, the participants verbally answered whether the ball thrown by the pitcher would reach the second baseman before the runner touched second base (i.e., when the runner would be out), or whether the runner would touch second base before the ball thrown by the pitcher reached the second baseman (i.e., when the runner would be safe). The results indicated that the catchers showed higher anticipation accuracy and signal detection sensitivity than the fielders. Also, there was no difference in the effect of temporal occlusion between the catchers and the fielders. These results suggest that catchers have better anticipation ability resulting from higher signal detection sensitivity, compared with fielders from the early stage, by making use of the information available about the ball, the pitcher, and the runner. Furthermore, it was evident that anticipation accuracy was particularly increased for trials in which the runner would be considered out at second base, and that the judgment bias for selection of first base became smaller in the time period immediately after bat-ball impact (i.e., from T1 to T2). These findings suggest that the time period immediately after bat-ball impact includes information that can be used to reduce the tendency for avoiding the risk of a losing score resulting from erroneous judgment.