Work in ecological psychology has shown that younger and older adults are able to perceive key characteristics of wielded rackets through haptic information related to touch and feel. Our study examined the non-visual perception of moment of inertia information by children and adults when wielding tennis rackets. Three groups (children; inexperienced and experienced adult tennis players; n=10 in each) were required to choose, through wielding, three preferred rackets from six available for striking a ball to a maximum distance. Participants in our study selected rackets under two separate conditions differing only in availability of visual information. Choices of racket were each given a weighted score and subjected to a statistical analysis (2 x 3 (condition by group) ANOVA with repeated measures on condition). Main effects were found for condition and group. Simple effects analysis revealed significant differences between visual and non-visual conditions for the children and the experienced adults, but not for the inexperienced adults. Follow up testing revealed significant differences in the visual condition between the children and experienced adults, and between the inexperienced and experienced adults. This finding implies that children are attracted to different visual characteristics compared to adult players. When participants in our study could not see the rackets, significant differences occurred between the children and inexperienced adults, and between the children and experienced adults. These differences in identifying preferred moments of inertia in the rackets between the children and both adult groups implied that children are sensitive to haptic information and that adult groups can learn to discriminate between rackets through task-specific experience in racket sports.
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