Fall 2003

Tuesdays 12:15  Goldwater 604

Seminar Schedule:<http://math.la.asu.edu/~tom/cognition/math+cogsched.html>

On Tuesday, October 28, at 12:15 PM in GWC 604,
the Mathematics and Cognition Seminar will present
a lecture by Mike McBeath of the Department of Psychology.
The topic will be:

"Lack of Awareness of the Perceptual Processes used to Catch a Ball"

Abstract.

I will briefly summarize the major findings of past work from my lab on how baseball players determine where to run to catch fly balls, and then will describe recent work examining why fielders appear to be unaware of how they do this task.  The major thesis is that there are essentially two visual systems, a conscious one (know as the Ventral or "what" system), and an unconscious one (known as the Dorsal or "how" system). It appears that the principal control mechanisms in this task are consistent with functioning of the unconscious system, and that fielders do not appear to be aware of what they are doing.  Included in the presentation will be findings demonstrating that judgments can be effected by sources of information like the behavior of other players, but fielders do not seem to realize this.  I will also quote commentary from professional players describing how they think they navigate to interception.  My conclusions are that even pro fielders are generally unaware of how they perform this task, and that they appear to use unconscious control mechanisms consistent with functioning of the Dorsal "how" system