ABSTRACT
This chapter presents three experiments extending projectile perception and interception research by examining the influence of a symmetry axis on the perception of a thrown, oblong, symmetric projectile, specifically an American football. The experiments verify the existence of similar perceptual biases in 3-dimensional space, in a real-world, spatial judgment task. First experiment consists of a web-survey examining participant’s accounts of the in-flight behavior of an American football. In Experiment 2, the researchers empirically examined the physics of the in-flight behavior of a thrown football, with a focus on the relationship of the axis of symmetry to the trajectory. Experiment 3 compared performance in a spatial judgment task that asked participants to predict the final destination of spherical and oblong projectiles, specifically, Volleyballs and footballs. With advancing locomotive technology, the existence of these biases has important implications in perceptual judgments of real-world objects such as naval vessels, airplanes, skidding automobiles and spacecraft.
