Simon and Chabris

Question 1

data

Answer 1

• collected quantitative data which enables the data to be easily summarised and compared between conditions
• e.g. they quantify the overall level of inattentional blindness in their study at 46% so the general strength of this is easy to see
• quantitative data can be statistically analysed

Question 1

research method

Answer 1

• carried out controlled lab experiments which fulfil the scientific criteria
• extraneous variables were highly controlled
• demand characteristics could influence the participants

Question 2

ethics

Answer 2

• informed consent was gained
• ## participants were debriefed about the task

Question 3

validity

Answer 3

• low construct validity: participants knew they were in a study and may have demand characteristics (e.g. if they have seen a similar video but failed to report this when the experimenter asked it would mean that inattentional blindness was not accurately measured
• high concurrent validity: the findings of the study are concurrently valid with both computer based studies and neissers stydies suggesting that it is valid to convlude that participants can miss an unexpected event in a dynamic scene when focusing their attention elsewhere
• high ecological validity: the study is more realistic

Question 4

reliability

Answer 4

• high internal reliability as can be replicable
• high external reliability: sample size of 192 participants

Question 5

sample

Answer 5

• high external reliability making it less likely to be affected by fluke or atypical results
• sample enables research to be carried out quickly and cheaply

Question 6

sample method

Answer 6

• volunteer sample with some receiving no payment, candy bar or being paid in this and a large study
• volunteer bias may occur which limits the generalisability of the findings as they may be biased towards the research resonding to demand characteristics

Question 7

ethnocentric

Answer 7

• not ethnocentric: researching the cognitive processes which is the same for every culture
• ethnocentric: it is possible that the finding only reflect how university educated peoples cognitive processes work since only students were studied

Question 8

individual

individual/situational

Answer 8

• overall level of inattentional blindness is 46%
• 54% of participants saw the unexpected event and did not experience inattentional blindness suggesting there are individiual differences in attention

Question 9

situational

individual/situational

Answer 9

• the situation could affect inattentional blindness
• colour of the black gorilla in the black team condition created similarity between the unexpected event and the attended event and this seemed to have made the gorilla more noticeable suggesting that context has an impact on attentional processes

Question 10

free will/determinism

Answer 10

• the study demonstrates that our attentional processes can influence us such that we fail to see an object that was in our centre of vision for 5 seconds
• our cogntive processes clearly have an influence on our behaviour and are an influence over which we have no conscious control suggesting that this is not freely chosen behaviour

Question 11

psychology as a science

Answer 11

• controlled lab experiments and these fulfil the scientific criteria of theory, control, evidence and replication

Question 12

how does the study link to the cognitive area

Answer 12

• aimed to investigate selective attention by trying to find out if an unexpected event that is in our centrak field of vision might be entirely missed if a person focuses their visual attention on a different feature of a visual event

Question 13

how does simon and chabris link to the key theme

Answer 13

• confirms the concept of inattentional blidness as it showed that not all information available to us in our visual field is processed and that selective attention paid to one element of a scene may mean that other elements may not be paid attention to and people will therefore have no memory of these

Question 14

how does simon and chabris change our understanding on attention

Answer 14

• it extends the broad principle that we can miss events that we are not paying attention to from the realm of hearing to sight
• people do not process all information nor pay attention to it. If attention is devoted
  to a different task background, information can appear to have never happened as it
  is unable to be recalled or recognised.

Question 15

how does simon and chabris study change our understanding of individual, social and cultural diversity

Answer 15

• individual diverisity: some individuals are more likely to be affected by inattentional bias even when the unattended event happens overtime