SIMON & CHABRIS

Question 1

BACKGROUND
Change blindness?
Inattentive blindness?

Answer 1

1. Individuals do not detect large changes to objects and scenes from one view to the next
2. When attention is diverted to another task or object, we fail to perceive an unexpected object

Question 2

AIM?

Answer 2

To build on previous research & investigate factors that may affect visual detection rates.
- Visual similarity of the unexpected object & attended ones
- Task difficulty
- The superimposed version of the display versus the live version
- The nature of the unusual event

Question 3

SAMPLE?

Answer 3

228 Participants (observers).

Question 4

SAMPLING METHOD?

Answer 4

Self-selective volunteer.
- without compensation
- candy bar
- single fee

Question 5

RESEARCH METHOD?
DESIGN?

Answer 5

Lab experiment
Independent measures

Question 6

IV? (4)

Answer 6

1. Transparent/Umbrella woman
2. Transparent/Gorilla
3. Opaque/Umbrella woman
4. Opaque/Gorilla

Question 7

What were the 4 task conditions?

Answer 7

1. White/easy
2. White/hard
3. Black/easy
4. Black/hard

Question 8

DV?

Answer 8

The number of participants in each of the 16 conditions who noticed the unexpected event (umbrella woman/gorilla)

Question 9

PROCEDURE?

Answer 9

1. P’s watched a video of 2 teams passing basketballs. Told to pay attention to either the white/black team.
2. Told to keep a mental count of the total number of either passes or bounce passes/aerial passes by the attended team. Then write this number down.
3. Then they were asked 3 questions:
   - Did you notice anything unusual?
   - Did you notice anything other than the 6 players?
   - Did you see a gorilla/umbrella woman?

Question 10

RESULTS?

Answer 10

54% noticed the unexpected event & 46% failed to notice the unexpected event.
- More participants noticed the unexpected event in the opaque/easy condition than transparent/hard.

Question 11

CONCLUSIONS? (2)

Answer 11

1. Observers are less likely to notice the event if it’s visually dissimilar to the events they are paying attention to.
2. Even if the event passes through the area of attentional focus, it may be undetected.