TY - JOUR

T1 - Ironic and Reinvestment Effects in Baseball Pitching

T2 - How Information about an Opponent Can Influence Performance under Pressure

AU - Gray, Robert

AU - Orn, Anders

AU - Woodman, Tim

N1 - 'as accepted for publication'

PY - 2017/2/28

Y1 - 2017/2/28

N2 - Are pressure-induced performance errors in experts associated with novice-like skill execution (as predicted by reinvestment/conscious processing theories) or expert execution towards a result that the performer typically intends to avoid (as predicted by ironic processes theory)? The present study directly compared these predictions using a baseball pitching task with two groups of experienced pitchers. One group was shown only their target while the other was shown the target and an ironic (avoid) zone. Both groups demonstrated significantly fewer target hits under pressure. For the target-only group, this was accompanied by significant changes in expertise-related kinematics variables. In the ironic group, the number of pitches thrown in the ironic zone was significantly higher under pressure and there were no significant changes in kinematics. These results suggest that information about an opponent can influence the mechanisms underlying pressure-induced performance errors.

AB - Are pressure-induced performance errors in experts associated with novice-like skill execution (as predicted by reinvestment/conscious processing theories) or expert execution towards a result that the performer typically intends to avoid (as predicted by ironic processes theory)? The present study directly compared these predictions using a baseball pitching task with two groups of experienced pitchers. One group was shown only their target while the other was shown the target and an ironic (avoid) zone. Both groups demonstrated significantly fewer target hits under pressure. For the target-only group, this was accompanied by significant changes in expertise-related kinematics variables. In the ironic group, the number of pitches thrown in the ironic zone was significantly higher under pressure and there were no significant changes in kinematics. These results suggest that information about an opponent can influence the mechanisms underlying pressure-induced performance errors.

KW - ironic error

KW - performance

KW - reinvestment

KW - baseball

U2 - 10.1123/jsep.2016-0035

DO - 10.1123/jsep.2016-0035

M3 - Article

VL - 39

SP - 3

EP - 12

JO - Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

JF - Journal of Sport and Exercise Psychology

SN - 0895-2779

IS - 1

ER -