Simons and Chabris 1999

Question 1

What research design was used?

Answer 1

Independent measures design

Question 2

What was the sample?

Answer 2

228 undergraduate students

Only 192 ps data used

Question 3

What was the procedure?

Answer 3

1. Ps watched a 75 second clip of a basketball game. Ps told to watch either white or black team. Ps had to count either no. passes (easy condition) or no. bounces and aerial passes (hard condition)
2. The unexpected event: Part way through clip either a tall woman with an umbrella would cross the screen for 5 seconds, or a woman in a gorilla costume would.
3. Ps were asked questions on whether they saw anything
4. Ps were debriefed

Question 4

What are 2 findings?

Answer 4

• 46% ps missed the unexpected event, 54%did see it

- Gorilla seen more in black condition than the white

Question 5

What is 1 conclusion?

Answer 5

We are likely to miss information when we are attending to something else (inattentional blindness)

Question 6

What research method was used ?

Answer 6

Lab

Question 7

How it relates to the key theme ‘attention’?

Answer 7

Demonstrates visual selective attention- not all information available to our visual field is processed

Question 8

How it links to the cognitive area?

Answer 8

Investigating the cognitive process of attention

Question 9

How is Simons and Chabris similar to Moray?

Answer 9

• Highly controlled lab experiments

- Both conducted ethically

Question 10

How is Simons and Chabris different to Moray?

Answer 10

• M=auditory inattention, S&C=visual inattention

- S&C sample relatively large, M quite small