ABSTRACT
This chapter investigates the role of attention on hitting performance as a function of expertise in a high-fidelity baseball batting simulation. The first goal of the experiment was designed to determine the comparability between skill-focused attention conditions and external -focused attention conditions. Second is to identify how forms of environmental-focused attention affect performance in novices and experts. The third goal was to investigate whether environmental-focused attention is beneficial to experts merely because it prevents experts from attending to their skill execution, or because environmental-focused attention actually assists experts in attaining pertinent information to the task. Planned comparisons revealed that the attention conditions had substantially different effects on batting performance for experts and novices. A comparison of the combined mean of the two “skill” conditions versus the combined mean of the two “environment” conditions revealed a significant condition x expertise interaction.
