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Psychophysics

How fielders arrive in time to catch the ball

Nature volume 426, pages 244–245 (2003)Cite this article

Abstract

Tracking an object moving in three dimensions, whether as an insect pursuing a mate on the wing1 or as a batsman aiming to hit an approaching ball2, provides the spatial and temporal information needed to intercept it. Here we show how fielders use such tracking signals to arrive at the right place in time to catch a ball — they run so that their angle of gaze elevation to the ball increases at a decreasing rate while their horizontal gaze angle to the ball increases at a constant rate (unless the distance to be run is small). Allowing the horizontal angle to increase minimizes the acceleration that the fielder must achieve to reach the interception point at the same time as the ball3.

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Figure 1: Keeping an eye on the ball.

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Author information

Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Oxford, South Parks Road, Oxford, UK, OX1 3UD

    Peter McLeod & Nick Reed

  2. Department of Experimental Psychology, University of Sussex, Falmer, BN1 9QG, Brighton, UK

    Zoltan Dienes

Authors
  1. Peter McLeod
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  2. Nick Reed
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  3. Zoltan Dienes
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Corresponding author

Correspondence to Peter McLeod.

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The authors declare no competing financial interests.

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McLeod, P., Reed, N. & Dienes, Z. How fielders arrive in time to catch the ball. Nature 426, 244–245 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1038/426244a

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