title: Evidence for a generic interceptive strategy.
abstract: In the present work, we first clarify a more precise definition of instantaneous optical angles in control tasks such as interception. We then test how well two interceptive strategies that have been proposed for catching fly balls account for human Frisbee-catching behavior. The first strategy is to maintain the ball's image along a linear optical trajectory (LOT). The second is to keep vertical optical ball velocity decreasing while maintaining constant lateral optical velocity. We found that an LOT accounted for an average of over 96% of the variance in optical Frisbee movement, while maintenance of vertical and lateral optical velocities was random. This work confirms a common interception strategy used across interceptive tasks, extending to complex target trajectories.
authors.affiliation: Department of Psychology, Ohio State University, Mansfield, Ohio 44906, USA. shaffer.247@osu.edu
authors.forename: Dennis M
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Shaffer
authors.forename: Michael K
authors.initials: MK
authors.lastname: McBeath
authors.forename: Scott M
authors.initials: SM
authors.lastname: Krauchunas
authors.forename: Thomas G
authors.initials: TG
authors.lastname: Sugar
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000328:Adult; D005403:Fixation, Ocular; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D013177:Sports; D014796:Visual Perception