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Simons study of visual attention - Coggle Diagram
Simons study of visual attention
AIMS
to confirm that inattentional blindness occurs in a realistic, complex situation
it also sought to identify the effect of a number of variables on the rate of inattentional blindness:
similarity of the unexpected event to the event
level of how unusual the unexpected event was
level of difficulty of the focused task
transparency of the characters
METHOD
SAMPLE: 228 pps, all students, offered a bribe
MATERIALS: four videos were recorded
same actors on the same day and location
75 seconds
2 teams of 3 (one in black, one in white)
each team passed a standard ball
players passed ball in a standard order
location was in front of an elevator
between 44-48 seconds there were two types of events (only one in each clip)- the gorilla or the umbrella woman
teams continued their action during the event
two video conditions (transparent and opaque)
PROCEDURE
Pps informed that the task would involve watching a video and that they should pay attention to either the white or black team, and count the number of passes
Two types of task- easy (all passes the team made) and hard (number of aerial passes and number of bounces the team made)
This enabled the manipulation of the type of event, type of video, and difficulty of the focus task
Then asked a number of questions: did you notice anything unusual? did you notice anything other than the 6 players? did you notice the gorilla/woman?- if they said yes they were asked to give details
RESULTS
overall level of inattentional blindness was 46%
type of video had an effect
as the difficulty of the task increased, the likelihood of inattentional blindness increased
the umbrella woman was seen 65%, the gorilla only 44%
CONCLUSIONS
inattentional blindness occurs in dynamic events that are sustained, lasting more than 5 seconds. showed that objects can pass through our central field of vision and not have be seen if they are not specifically attended to
EVALUATIONS
METHOD: controlled lab experiment and standardised procedure
DATA: quantitative so easy to compare between the 16 conditions
ETHICS: within ethical guidelines- informed consent and debriefed afterwards
VALIDITY: high design validity due to lab conditions
ECOLOGOCIAL: inattentional blindness may not occur so readily in real life
SAMPLE: large sample, may have been bias
due to the fact it was a volunteer sample
ETHNOCENTRISM: could be species-specific but also may only reflect university student's level of attention
INDIVIDUAL/SITUATIONAL: more than half the pps saw the event and so perhaps there are some individual differences, however shows that the situation impacts the rate of inattentional blindness
FREEWILL/DETERMINISM: shows that our attentional processes can influence us to fail to see things, suggesting it is not freely chosen behaviour
SCIENCE: controlled and standardised