5.4 Inattentional Blindness and Change Blindness

Inattentional blindness and change blindness 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

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  Inattentional Blindness – Introduction to Sensation and Perception View original

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• 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 (Simons & Chabris, 1999)
• Pedestrians using mobile phones fail to notice unicycling clown (Hyman et al., 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

• Attentional load increases likelihood as cognitive demands rise (complex math problems)
• Expectation and mental set 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)
• Conspicuity of unexpected stimulus affects noticeability (bright flashing object more likely seen than dull static one)
• Individual differences in working memory capacity and personality traits (openness to experience) influence susceptibility
• Task difficulty 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:
  1. Flicker paradigm: rapid alternation between original and changed images
  2. Gradual changes: slow alterations to scene elements
  3. Mudsplashes: brief visual disruptions during change
• Implications:
  • Reveals limited capacity of visual working memory
  • Challenges notion of detailed internal representation of world
  • Highlights importance of attention in constructing conscious visual experience
• Real-world applications impact:
  • Eyewitness testimony reliability (misremembering crucial details)
  • User interface design (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:
  • Subliminal perception: processing stimuli without conscious awareness (subliminal advertising)
  • Blindsight: responding to visual stimuli without conscious perception (navigating obstacles despite cortical blindness)
• Theories of consciousness:
  • Global Workspace Theory (Baars): consciousness as broadcasting of information
  • Integrated Information Theory (Tononi): consciousness as integrated information in brain
• Neural correlates involve prefrontal cortex and parietal areas in conscious experience
• Attentional blink demonstrates temporal limits of attention and awareness (missing second target in rapid visual presentation)
• Load theory of selective attention (Lavie) distinguishes perceptual load vs cognitive load effects on distractor processing
• Implications challenge idea of single, unified consciousness and support modular theories of mind