Cognitive area: Simons and Chabris Flashcards
What was the key theme of Simons and Chabris’ research?
Visual inattention
What is inattentional blindness?
The failure to see an event or object in your field of vision because you are so focussed on other elements of what you can see
What two types of research do S and C refer to that have previously investigated inattentional blindness?
Computer based dynamic displays and video based dynamic events
What are computer based dynamic displays?
A visual equivalent to Moray’s work, P’s were asked to judge line lengths that made up crosses and data was collected on whether P’s would miss ‘unexpected events’ such as a smiley face
Who conducted the computer based dynamic display research?
Mack and Rock
What are video based dynamic events?
Known as ‘selective looking’, research investigated inattentional blindness using a more realistic event (a basketball match between 6 players) which were superimposed on each other and data was collected on whether P’s would notice a woman walking through the match with an umbrella
Who conducted the previous research on inattentional blindness whereby a video based dynamic event was used?
Neisser
Why did Mack and Rock and Neisser’s studies lack ecological validity?
Because people do not normally judge the lengths of lines in everyday life and because the videos were superimposed on each other
How/why was Neisser’s ask an example of sustained inattentional blindness?
Because the unexpected event was 4 seconds long
What did Simons and Chabris want to confirm with their research?
That inattentional blindness occurs in a realistic complex situation (ie where the unexpected event lasts for 5 seconds or more, but is nonetheless unnoticed by observers)
What other 4 variables did S and C want to test?
Whether colour of unexpected event would have an effect on inattentional blindness
Whether a particularly unusual event would be detected
Whether a more difficult task would increase inattentional blindness
Whether a more realistic video would give different findings to Neisser’s research
What research method did S and C use?
Lab experiment
What experimental design did S and C use and justify this
Independent measures as each P was only tested in 1 condition
Describe the sample
228 P’s, almost all of whom were students
What rewards were P’s offered for taking part?
A single payment or a large candy bar
Describe some of the controls used in each of the video clips
Same actors, time of day and location
2 teams of 3 players
Standard basketball
What was the standard pass order of the ball?
1 > 2 > 3
What was the size of the area used for the video clips?
3 x 5m
At what time in the video did the unexpected event occur?
Between 44 and 48 seconds