Simons and Chabris Flashcards
What was the aim of the study?
Two main questions
To what degree are the details of our visual world perceived and represented?
What role does attention play in this process?
What experimental design was used in the study?
Lab experiment
Independant measures design
What were the four independant variables?
Transparent
Opaque
Easy (number of passes) Hard (type of pass)
Black/white team
Describe the sample
228 volunteers
mostly students
Paid in sweets or given a fee
36 participants were removed
16 groups of 12
Describe the procedure
Participants saw one of four videos
Showed two teams, one wore white and the other wore black
After 44-48 seconds the unexpected event occured
Either umbrella woman or gorilla
Describe the controlled observation
12 participants watched a video in which a gorilla thumped its chest
Participants were asked to count the number of a certain type of pass made by a certain team
What questions were participants asked following the task?
Did you notice anything unusual in the video?
Did you notice anything other than the 6 players?
Did you see a gorilla/woman holding an umbrella?
Had you taken part in a similar study/heard of this phenomenon before? - if they answered yes their results were removed
What were the results of the study? (what percentage of people saw the unexpected event in each condition?)
Transparent: Easy: WU=6.96 WG=0.96 BU=11.04 BG=8.04 Hard: WU=3.96 WG=0.96 BU=5.04 BG=3
Opaque: Easy: Easy: WU=12 WG=5.04 BU=6.96 BG=9.96 Hard: WU=6.96 WG=6 BU=6.96 BG=6.96
What conclusions were drawn from the study?
Supports inattentional blindness- if we are not paying attention we do not see it
Inattentional blindness is influenced by difficulty of the task
Participants are more likely to notice an event if it is visually similar to what they are focusing on
Participants could be blind to unexpected events even if they were directly in their line of sight
