simons and chabris

• background

  • inattention blindness - the failure to see something directly in front of you
  • Neisser conducted an experiment into inattentional blindness counting basketball passes, found high levels but was criticised due to the realisticness of the video
• aim - to confirm that inattentional blindness does occur in more realistic situations and that blindness is sustained
• sample

  • 192 ps
  • volunteer sampling from Harvard
• method

  • lab
  • independent measures design
  • 4 conditions, transparent video with woman, transparent video with gorilla, opaque video with woman, opaque video with gorilla
  • iv - type of video, type of unexpected event, difficultly of focused event, colour of shirts to watch
• procedure

  1. ps asked to count number of passes between their team (easy) or count number of aerial and bounce passes separately (hard)
  2. after viewing the tape ps were asked to record their number of passes and then asked if notice anything unusual, notice anything other than the 6 players, notice a gorilla/ woman walking
  3. if they said yes asked to provide more details, if they mentioned the unexpected event they were not asked further questions
• results

  • overall inattentional blindness 46%
  • less inattentional blindness in opaque video
  • less inattentional blindness in easy condition
  • similarity of the unexpected event with focused event did not influence inattentional blindness
  • gorilla was seen more in black condition than white condition
• conclusions

  • inattentional blindness does occur in dynamic events that are sustained, inattentional blindness happens in more realistic and ecologically valid situations, neissers work can also be generalised
• strengths

  • ethics
  • lab
  • decreased demand characteristics
  • population validity
• weaknesses

  • lab
  • increased funding
  • prestige of location may influence results