Simons and Chabris Flashcards
What year was this study done
1999
What’s inattentional blindness
when you fail to see something because your paying attention to something else
What happened in Neissers study in 1970s
Participants watched videos of basketball teams and counted no of passes.
22/28 failed to see a women with an umbrella walk across screen.
3 vids were overlayed - transparent effect
Aims
Investigate wether transparency of vid affects attention
Investigate effects of nature of unexpected event, what told to focus on and difficulty of task
Sample
228 undergrad students
36 removed
192 remained (12 per condition)
Procedure
75 sec video and asked questions
16 conditions based on 4 IVs
independent measures
what we’re the 4 IVs
- vid appearance (transparent/opaque)
- event (woman & umbrella/gorilla)
- similarity of task (count white/black team)
- difficulty (no of passes/no of bounce and aerial passes)
What was the DV
if participants reported the unexpected event or not
results
overall 46% level of inattentional blindness
opaque 66.5%/transparent 41.6%
woman 65.5%/gorilla 42.6%
black 67%/white8%
easy 63.5%/difficult 44.6%
conclusions
Paying attention to one task may result in people failing to see an unexpected event nearly half the time
Provides evidence for sustained inattentional blindness
Which was more likely to see the unexpected event - opaque or transparent
opaque - easier to see and clearer
which was noticed more out of gorilla and woman
woman - more likely to notice something usual
which team when focused on was more likely to see gorilla
black - similar to what focusing on
easy or hard task more likely to see event?
easy - wont focus so much
sample size (external reliability)
228 is large so can establish consistent effect but 12 per condition isn’t enough
