5.4 Inattentional Blindness and Change Blindness
3 min read•july 25, 2024
and reveal surprising gaps in our perception. These phenomena show how focused attention can make us miss obvious things, challenging our understanding of how we process visual information.
Attention acts as a gatekeeper for consciousness, influencing what we're aware of. Theories like Global Workspace and Integrated Information try to explain how attention and awareness interact, shedding light on the complex relationship between what we focus on and what we consciously experience.
Attention and Perception
Examples of inattentional blindness
Top images from around the web for Examples of inattentional blindness
Frontiers | Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults View original
Is this image relevant?
Frontiers | Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults View original
Is this image relevant?
Inattentional Blindness – Introduction to Sensation and Perception View original
Is this image relevant?
Frontiers | Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults View original
Is this image relevant?
Frontiers | Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults View original
Is this image relevant?
1 of 3
Top images from around the web for Examples of inattentional blindness
Frontiers | Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults View original
Is this image relevant?
Frontiers | Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults View original
Is this image relevant?
Inattentional Blindness – Introduction to Sensation and Perception View original
Is this image relevant?
Frontiers | Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults View original
Is this image relevant?
Frontiers | Inattentional Blindness During Driving in Younger and Older Adults View original
Is this image relevant?
1 of 3
- Inattentional blindness occurs when focused attention on specific task causes failure to notice unexpected stimulus in plain sight
- Gorilla experiment participants miss person in gorilla suit while counting basketball passes (, 1999)
- Pedestrians using mobile phones fail to notice unicycling clown (, 2010)
- Air traffic controllers miss unexpected aircraft on radar screens during simulations
- Drivers overlook pedestrians or cyclists while focusing on navigation
- Radiologists sometimes miss obvious abnormalities on medical scans when searching for specific conditions
Factors in inattentional blindness
- increases likelihood as cognitive demands rise (complex math problems)
- Expectation and shape preconceived notions about scene (looking for red car, miss blue truck)
- Similarity of unexpected stimulus to attended items makes missing more likely (searching for circle, overlook similar oval)
- of unexpected stimulus affects noticeability (bright flashing object more likely seen than dull static one)
- Individual differences in and personality traits (openness to experience) influence susceptibility
- increases inattentional blindness (solving difficult puzzle vs simple counting task)
- Expertise in specific domain can paradoxically increase blindness to unexpected events within that domain
Change blindness in perception
- Change blindness involves failure to detect changes in visual scenes, even with large alterations
- Methods for studying:
- : rapid alternation between original and changed images
- : slow alterations to scene elements
- : brief visual disruptions during change
- Implications:
- Reveals limited capacity of
- Challenges notion of detailed internal representation of world
- Highlights importance of attention in constructing conscious visual experience
- Real-world applications impact:
- reliability (misremembering crucial details)
- (unnoticed updates in software)
- Traffic safety (failing to detect changes in road conditions)
Attention vs conscious awareness
- Attention acts as gateway to consciousness, selective attention determines awareness entry
- Dissociation between attention and awareness demonstrated through:
- : processing stimuli without conscious awareness (subliminal advertising)
- : responding to visual stimuli without conscious perception (navigating obstacles despite cortical blindness)
- Theories of consciousness:
- (Baars): consciousness as broadcasting of information
- (Tononi): consciousness as integrated information in brain
- Neural correlates involve prefrontal cortex and parietal areas in conscious experience
- demonstrates temporal limits of attention and awareness (missing second target in rapid visual presentation)
- (Lavie) distinguishes perceptual load vs cognitive load effects on distractor processing
- Implications challenge idea of single, unified consciousness and support modular theories of mind
Key Terms to Review (23)
Attentional Blink: Attentional blink is a phenomenon where a person fails to perceive a second visual stimulus that appears shortly after the first one, typically within 200-500 milliseconds. This temporary lapse in attention occurs because cognitive resources are still processing the first stimulus, which can lead to missing subsequent information. It highlights how selective attention works, showcasing limitations in our ability to process multiple items in quick succession.
Attentional load: Attentional load refers to the amount of cognitive resources required to process information in a given task. This concept is crucial in understanding why we sometimes miss visual details or changes in our environment, especially when our attention is heavily taxed by the primary task at hand. The level of attentional load can impact our ability to notice distractions or changes, leading to phenomena like inattentional blindness and change blindness.
Blindsight: Blindsight is a phenomenon where individuals with damage to the primary visual cortex can respond to visual stimuli without being consciously aware of seeing them. This suggests that some visual processing can occur outside of conscious perception, highlighting the complexities of how we perceive and interact with our environment.
Change Blindness: Change blindness is a psychological phenomenon where a person fails to notice significant changes in their visual environment, often due to the limitations of attentional resources. This effect highlights how attention plays a crucial role in perception, revealing that our awareness is not as comprehensive as we might believe. It is closely related to inattentional blindness, where individuals miss out on stimuli in their visual field because their attention is focused elsewhere, showing the intricate relationship between attention and perception.
Conspicuity: Conspicuity refers to the degree to which an object stands out and captures attention within a visual scene. This term plays a vital role in understanding how certain stimuli can either attract or repel focus, particularly in the context of inattentional blindness and change blindness, where the visibility of objects significantly affects our ability to notice them amidst distractions or changes in the environment.
Eyewitness testimony: Eyewitness testimony refers to the account given by individuals who have witnessed an event, often used in legal contexts to help establish facts about a crime or incident. This type of testimony can be crucial for court cases, but it is also highly susceptible to inaccuracies and distortions due to various psychological factors. The reliability of eyewitness accounts can be significantly impacted by attention-related phenomena and memory processes, which can alter what a witness believes they saw or experienced.
Flicker paradigm: The flicker paradigm is a psychological experimental technique used to study visual perception, particularly focusing on change blindness. In this method, two images are presented alternately with a brief blank screen in between, causing observers to miss changes between the images that occur during the flicker, highlighting how our visual system can fail to detect alterations in our environment when attention is diverted.
Global Workspace Theory: Global workspace theory proposes that consciousness arises from the activation of a global workspace in the brain, where various pieces of information compete for attention and awareness. This theory suggests that only a small fraction of information becomes conscious, while most remains unconscious, helping to explain phenomena like inattentional blindness and change blindness, where we fail to notice changes or events in our surroundings.
Gradual changes: Gradual changes refer to the slow and often imperceptible alterations that occur in a visual scene over time. These changes can be challenging for individuals to notice, especially when attention is focused on specific details, leading to phenomena such as change blindness. The concept highlights how our perception is not always fully aware of all elements in our surroundings, particularly when shifts occur incrementally rather than suddenly.
Hyman et al.: Hyman et al. refers to a significant study conducted by researchers including Hyman that explored the phenomena of inattentional blindness and change blindness. These concepts illustrate how individuals can miss changes in their visual environment or fail to notice unexpected objects when their attention is focused elsewhere, highlighting the limitations of human attention and perception.
Inattentional Blindness: Inattentional blindness is a psychological phenomenon where an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight due to focused attention on another task or object. This concept highlights how attention operates selectively, meaning that while we may be concentrating on one thing, we can miss out on other critical information around us. It connects to various theories of attention, showcasing how attention can influence perception and the processing of visual information.
Integrated Information Theory: Integrated Information Theory (IIT) is a theoretical framework that aims to explain consciousness by measuring the degree of interconnectedness and integration of information within a system. It posits that consciousness corresponds to the capacity of a system to integrate information, suggesting that the more integrated the information, the higher the level of consciousness experienced. This idea has significant implications for understanding perceptual phenomena like inattentional blindness and change blindness, as it highlights how our awareness can be influenced by the flow and integration of information in our environment.
Invisible gorilla experiment: The invisible gorilla experiment is a famous psychological study that demonstrates inattentional blindness, where individuals fail to notice an unexpected stimulus in their visual field while focusing on a different task. In this experiment, participants watched a video of people passing a basketball and were instructed to count the number of passes made by one team. Surprisingly, many participants did not see a person in a gorilla suit walking through the scene, highlighting how our attention can be narrowly focused, causing us to overlook significant events.
Load Theory of Selective Attention: Load theory of selective attention proposes that the ability to focus on relevant stimuli while ignoring distractions depends on the cognitive load of the task at hand. When tasks are high in perceptual load, the brain has limited resources available for processing irrelevant information, leading to reduced susceptibility to distractions, which can result in phenomena such as inattentional blindness and change blindness.
Mental Set: A mental set is a cognitive framework that influences how we approach problem-solving based on previous experiences or solutions. This bias can lead to a fixed perspective, often causing individuals to overlook alternative methods and solutions, which can impact our ability to adapt to new situations. The concept is crucial for understanding how attention and problem-solving strategies are shaped by our past encounters.
Mudsplashes: Mudsplashes refer to the visual phenomena that occur when an object briefly captures attention and interrupts our focus, often leading to a significant change in perception. This term connects to the broader concepts of inattentional blindness and change blindness, highlighting how our attention can be easily misdirected or overwhelmed by unexpected stimuli in our environment.
Perceptual Load Theory: Perceptual load theory suggests that the capacity of attention is limited and that the difficulty of a task determines how much of that capacity is used. When a task has a high perceptual load, it consumes more attentional resources, leaving fewer available for processing irrelevant stimuli. This theory helps explain phenomena like inattentional blindness and change blindness, where individuals fail to notice unexpected changes in their environment due to the limitations in their attention.
Simons & Chabris: Simons & Chabris refers to a well-known psychological experiment conducted by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris in 1999, which demonstrated the phenomenon of inattentional blindness. Their study revealed how people can miss significant changes in their visual field when their attention is focused elsewhere, highlighting the limitations of human perception and the importance of attention in processing visual information.
Subliminal perception: Subliminal perception refers to the process by which individuals are influenced by stimuli that are presented below their conscious awareness. This means that the brain can register and respond to these hidden signals without the individual being aware of them, impacting their thoughts, feelings, and behaviors. It plays a significant role in understanding how people may miss certain visual or auditory information while being subtly influenced by other factors, particularly in situations involving inattentional and change blindness.
Task difficulty: Task difficulty refers to the level of challenge presented by a particular task or activity, influencing how much mental effort and attention is required to complete it. This concept is crucial in understanding cognitive processes like perception and attention, particularly when individuals encounter situations where they may not notice changes or relevant stimuli due to the demands of the task at hand.
User Interface Design: User interface design is the process of creating interfaces that enable users to interact with software, devices, or applications effectively and efficiently. This design discipline focuses on enhancing user experience by ensuring that interfaces are intuitive, accessible, and visually appealing, considering factors such as usability, functionality, and the potential for inattentional and change blindness.
Visual working memory: Visual working memory refers to the cognitive system that temporarily holds and manipulates visual information, allowing us to process and interact with visual stimuli in our environment. This form of memory is crucial for tasks such as recognizing faces, remembering objects, or tracking movements, as it helps us maintain relevant visual details even when those details are no longer directly perceived. Its effectiveness can be influenced by various factors, such as attention and the capacity of the memory system.
Working Memory Capacity: Working memory capacity refers to the amount of information that can be temporarily held and manipulated in an individual's mind. This capacity is crucial for cognitive tasks, as it influences how we process information, solve problems, and perform tasks that require concentration and multitasking.