Correlation between Visual Disembedding and Basketball Shooting by Male and Female Varsity College Athletes

Full text

Perceptual and Motor Skills,
1975, 41,956.
@
Perceptual and Motor Skills 1975
CORRELATION BETWEEN VISUAL DISEMBEDDING
AND
BASKETBALL SHOOTING BY MALE
AND
FEMALE
VARSITY COLLEGE ATHLETES
DAVID PARGMAN PETER BENDER PAUL DESHAIES
Florida State University John Abbott College University of Sherbrooke
The delineation of visual attributes related to the qualiry of athletic performance
is
not yet clearly established. Research suggccts that basketball shooting performance is
meaningfully related to distance
perception
(3)
and dynamic visual acuity
(I),
while
relarively unrelated to measures of depth perception
(4)
and visual imagery (5). Other
properties such as visual disembedding have yet to be considered in relation to successful
basketball shooting. Visual disembedding refers to the ability to break up an organized
visual field in order to keep a part of it separate from its surroundings. The task is
static like those used for depth perception and imagery and is c!aimed to be the core trait
of
globs!-analytic
cognitive style (6).
To estimate the correlation between efficiency of basketball shooting and ability to
disembed a complex visual field. 11 male
(M,,,,
=
20.7 yr.,
SD
=
1.01), and
9
female
(M...
=
20.5.
SD
=
1.93) sophomore and junior varsity basketball players, enrolled
at Florida State University were administered the Group Hidden-figures Test, an adapta-
tion of the Gottschaldt Figures Test (2). The task required subjects to determine which
of five simple figures was embedded in a more comp'ex pattern. The test was admin-
istered midway in the basketball season. Scores were correlated with the seasonal field-
goal and free-throw shooring efficiency of each subject. Efficiency ratings were the ratio
of successful shots to the total attempts during competition. A minimum of 20 and
10 attempts in the field-goal and free-throw caregories respectively were established as
criteria for including subjects' data. Mean number of field-goal attempts
=
184.3,
SD
=
115.1 for the males, and 138.6.
SD
=
72.4
for the females; mean number of free-
throw attempts
=
47.3,
SD
=
20.9 for the males, and
M
=
60.2,
SD
=
34.9
for the
females.
The Group Hidden-figures Test scores were not significantly correlated
with
either
percentages of free throws (males -.41; females -.05) or field goals (males .16;
females --.21). While
a
number of competition variables might be considered, these
calculations
clearly suggest that the ability to disembed a static visual field is not a vari-
able of concern in the understanding of the dynamic visual properties which relate to
basketball shooting.
REFERENCES
1.
BEALS,
R.
P.,
MAWASI, A. M., TEMPLBTON,
A.
E.,
&
JOHNSTON,
W.
L.
The relation-
ship between basketball shooting performance and certain visual attributes.
American Journal of Optometry and Archives of American Academy of Optometry,
197 1,48, 585-590.
2.
JACKSON, D.
N.
A short form of Witkin's Embedded Figures Test.
Journal of
Abnormal Psychology,
1956, 53, 254-255.
3.
MURPHEY, P. The utilization of standard motor skills in the field of athletics. Un-
published thesis. Iowa State Univer., 1930.
4. SHICK,
J.
Relationship between depth perception and hand-eye dominance and free-
throw shooting in college women.
Pcrceptrral and Motor Skills,
1971, 33, 539-
542.
5. TURNELL, A. The relationship of visual imagery to the ability to learn certain game
skills. Unpublished thesis, Iowa State Univer., 1949.
6.
WITKIN,
H.
A.,
DYK,
R.
B.,
FATERSON,
H.
F., GOODENOUGH,
D.
R.,
&
KARP, S.
A.
Prychological differentiation.
New York: Wiley, 1962.
Accepted November
20,
1975.