Stimulus Control in Baseball Batters

1. Stimulus Control in Baseball Batters

2. To be successful the baseball batter must swing at good pitches, and withhold swinging at bad pitches. In order to do this the batter must discriminate, in less than a second, good from bad pitches.

3. 3 5 1 2 4 The other pitches are less favorable The most favorable pitch is down the center of home plate

4. The Average batter discriminates well enough to swing mostly at balls toward the center of the plate

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7. The “Free-Swinging” batter discriminates poorly, swinging at most of the balls regardless of their location.

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10. The discriminating batter swings primarily at pitches down the center of the plate, such that small variations in pitches produce large differences in bat-swinging responses.

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14. The pure hitters like Wade Boggs and Tony Gwynn are well tuned to the specific features of pitched balls. Why are pure hitters under such precise stimulus control? Probably because of several factors such as visual-motor capacity, extensive previous experience at the plate, and selective reinforcement of responding.

15. Effect of Discrimination Training on Stimulus Control Discrimination training as a sharpener of stimulus control. After Jenkins & Harrison, 1960, 1962