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Change blindness and inattentional blindness
Author(s) -
Jensen Melinda S.,
Yao Richard,
Street Whitney N.,
Simons Daniel J.
Publication year - 2011
Publication title -
wiley interdisciplinary reviews: cognitive science
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.526
H-Index - 49
eISSN - 1939-5086
pISSN - 1939-5078
DOI - 10.1002/wcs.130
Subject(s) - inattentional blindness , notice , change blindness , blindness , perception , context (archaeology) , psychology , cognitive psychology , political science , optometry , geography , medicine , law , neuroscience , archaeology
Change blindness and inattentional blindness are both failures of visual awareness. Change blindness is the failure to notice an obvious change. Inattentional blindness is the failure to notice the existence of an unexpected item. In each case, we fail to notice something that is clearly visible once we know to look for it. Despite similarities, each type of blindness has a unique background and distinct theoretical implications. Here, we discuss the central paradigms used to explore each phenomenon in a historical context. We also outline the central findings from each field and discuss their implications for visual perception and attention. In addition, we examine the impact of task and observer effects on both types of blindness as well as common pitfalls and confusions people make while studying these topics. WIREs Cogni Sci 2011 2 529–546 DOI: 10.1002/wcs.130 This article is categorized under: Psychology > Attention