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A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception?

BACKGROUND: There is a growing chorus of critics who complain that many of the top-ranked professional tennis players who grunt when they hit the ball gain an unfair advantage because the sound of the grunt interferes with their opponent's game. However, there is no scientific evidence to suppo...

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Detalles Bibliográficos
Autores principales: Sinnett, Scott, Kingstone, Alan
Formato: Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Public Library of Science 2010
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2948523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20957210
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013148
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author Sinnett, Scott
Kingstone, Alan
author_facet Sinnett, Scott
Kingstone, Alan
author_sort Sinnett, Scott
collection PubMed
description BACKGROUND: There is a growing chorus of critics who complain that many of the top-ranked professional tennis players who grunt when they hit the ball gain an unfair advantage because the sound of the grunt interferes with their opponent's game. However, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We explored this potential detrimental effect of grunting by presenting videos of a tennis player hitting a ball to either side of a tennis court; the shot either did, or did not, contain a brief sound that occurred at the same time as contact. The participants' task was to respond as quickly as possible, indicating whether the ball was being hit to the left- or right-side of the court. The results were unequivocal: The presence of an extraneous sound interfered with a participants' performance, making their responses both slower and less accurate. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data suggest that a grunting player has a competitive edge on the professional tennis tour. The mechanism that underlies this effect is a topic for future investigation. Viable alternatives are discussed. For example, the possibility that the interfering auditory stimulus masks the sound of the ball being struck by the racket or it distracts an opponent's attention away from the sound of the ball.
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spelling pubmed-29485232010-10-18 A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception? Sinnett, Scott Kingstone, Alan PLoS One Research Article BACKGROUND: There is a growing chorus of critics who complain that many of the top-ranked professional tennis players who grunt when they hit the ball gain an unfair advantage because the sound of the grunt interferes with their opponent's game. However, there is no scientific evidence to support this claim. METHODOLOGY/PRINCIPAL FINDINGS: We explored this potential detrimental effect of grunting by presenting videos of a tennis player hitting a ball to either side of a tennis court; the shot either did, or did not, contain a brief sound that occurred at the same time as contact. The participants' task was to respond as quickly as possible, indicating whether the ball was being hit to the left- or right-side of the court. The results were unequivocal: The presence of an extraneous sound interfered with a participants' performance, making their responses both slower and less accurate. CONCLUSIONS/SIGNIFICANCE: Our data suggest that a grunting player has a competitive edge on the professional tennis tour. The mechanism that underlies this effect is a topic for future investigation. Viable alternatives are discussed. For example, the possibility that the interfering auditory stimulus masks the sound of the ball being struck by the racket or it distracts an opponent's attention away from the sound of the ball. Public Library of Science 2010-10-01 /pmc/articles/PMC2948523/ /pubmed/20957210 http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013148 Text en Sinnett, Kingstone. http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/ This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium, provided the original author and source are properly credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Sinnett, Scott
Kingstone, Alan
A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception?
title A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception?
title_full A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception?
title_fullStr A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception?
title_full_unstemmed A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception?
title_short A Preliminary Investigation Regarding the Effect of Tennis Grunting: Does White Noise During a Tennis Shot Have a Negative Impact on Shot Perception?
title_sort preliminary investigation regarding the effect of tennis grunting: does white noise during a tennis shot have a negative impact on shot perception?
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC2948523/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/20957210
http://dx.doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0013148
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