Catching a Flying Ball – is that Really that Easy? A Contribution to the Critique of G. Gigerenzer's Approach

The Gigerenzer school’s omnipresent example of fast and frugal heuristics--the gaze heuristic of catching a fly ball—is criticized. It is shown that the player following such heuristics will touch the ball not by the hand but by the receptor gauging the angle’s magnitude, i.e., the eye. Real catching flying things, in contrast with the gaze heuristic, is an instance of a complex cognitive system delivering a simpler and more effective result, whereas more primitive cognitive tools yield a more complex and ineffective solution