Abstract
The emergence of a lefties’ advantage in interactive sports can best be explained by negative frequency-dependent effects (Hagemann, 2009) assuming that the greater frequency of situations with right-handed opponents makes it possible to discriminate and predict a right-handed opponent’s movement more precisely. A study by Schorer, Baker, Fath & Jaitner (2007) demonstrated that expert players are capable of using strategically varying movement patterns in contrast to advanced players who use stable movement patterns. Novices, however, show a high variability in their movement patterns. The aim of our study was to test whether negative frequency-dependent effects occur only against advanced players and not versus experts or novices. Video stimuli were taken from a study of Schorer and colleagues (2007). To receive videos of the same quality of right- and left-handed throwers, videos were flipped vertically. The video sequences were presented to three participant groups (goalkeepers performing on a national level of competition, on a regional level of competition and p.e. students) on a computer screen and participants were instructed to predict the direction of the throw. We conducted a four factorial analysis of variance design with expertise of goalkeepers (experts, advanced, and novice goalkeepers) as between-subject and expertise of throwers (experts, advanced, and novice thrower), temporal occlusion conditions and laterality of presented throwers as within-subject factors. Results indicated the expected differences between left- and right-handed presented throwers as well as its interaction with various other factors. Results indicate that negative frequency effects depend on viewer’s familiarity with the throwing patterns displayed.Acknowledgments: Hagemann, N. (2009). The advantage of being left-handed in interactive sports. Attention, Perception & Psychophysics, 71, 1641-1648. Schorer, J., Baker, J., Fath, F. & Jaitner, T. (2007). Identification of interindividual and intraindividual movement patterns in handball players of varying expertise levels. Journal of motor behavior, 39(5), 409-421.