Perceptual style of varsity tennis players.

In the sport of tennis, the player is confronted with a complex external environment. From chis environment, visual informarion must be extracted to allow the player to select and classify necessary cues for initiating the appropriate response. For example, the player must observe the opponent's racket, body position, the point of ball contacr, and the flight of the ball. The impact of a visual stimulus on the perceptual processes of sensory capacities, central processing and memory may be a key factor in success at tennis. Perceptual style has been extensively studied by Witkin and associates (4, 5, 6 ) who became interested in the manner in which people perceive an object in relation to its surroundings. This phenomenon is referred to as the figure-ground principle. The concept of field-dependence is represented by mfo contrasting perceptual modes conceived as opposite ends of a continuum. The field-dependent or global mode indicates the difficulty of separating objects from their surroundings while the field-independent or analytical mode represents the ease of detecting objects from their surroundings. In studying the perceptual style of tennis Kreiger ( 3 ) found a relationship between figure-ground perception and spatial adjustments, but Enberg's findings ( 2 ) did not show a significant relationship between directionality and field dependence. Barrell and Trippe (1) found highly skilled tennis players were more field dependent than moderately skilled players. The purpose of this study was to determine the perceptual style of varsity tennis players and the relationship between perceprual style and team rank of these players. The men's and women's 1976-77 varsity teams of the University of Nebraska-Lincoln were asked to participate in this study; 11 of 12 females and 8 of 8 males volunteered. The team rank of individuals was acquired from the respective coaches. The method used by the coaches to determine the individual's team rank was a challenge ladder tournament and previous individual win/loss record. To assess the field dependence of the subjects Witkin's Group Embedded Figures Test was used. The test has two timed sections of 18 com~lex fimres. The task of the subiect is to identifv a concealed firmre from its surroun'dines. -The total number of simile forms corre&ly traced determ:nes the score. The hlgKer the score, with a possible 18, the greater the field independence. The score ranged from 0 to 17 for females and from 4 to 18 for males. The mean score for men ( M = 12 88. u = 5.30) was slightly higher than the mean score for women ( M = 10.45, u = 5.75). There was no statistically significant difference in scores between the sexes ( r = 3 3 ) . The mean score for the total group ( M = 11.47, u = 5.55) suggests that these tennis players tend to be slightly field independent. Using Spearman's rank-correlation coefficient, the relationship between the Group Embedded Figures Test and individual's team rank was assessed. The nonsignificant coefficient for 8 males was 0.0 and that for 11 females was -0.07, while for the total group p = 0.13, indicating there is no relationship between field dependence and team position on these varsity tennis teams. Cross-validation is essential.