C HA N GE BL IN DN ES S AN D SEL EC TIV E ATTEN TION

Ryan OLeary &Eric McAlpine

The Bromfield School Psychology D Period Mrs. Doherty Due: 1/30/13

Introduction
The concept of change blindness has been around since the late 1980s, but took significant steps forward with the use of photography. John Grimes was the first to use images in his studies. He helped to discover that large changes will not be noticed during saccadic movements of the eye. This means that we cannot perceive changes unless our eyes are focused on the area of change. Suggesting that a human would most likely notice if the sky turns green, but they may start a conversation with one person and end it with another one, without ever realizing they switched. The idea of change blindness is closely related with what psychologists call selective attention. This refers to ones ability to focus on something in particular and tune out everything else. These two tangents of psychology tie together because when one focuses their attention on something specific (selective attention) they tend to lose sight on what else is happening around them, which is where the change blindness comes in. Our hypothesis is that, even the most obvious of changes will go unnoticed if ones attention is fixated on a specific object or task. Many people have studied the subject in their own ways. The most popular experiment involving change blindness is the classic passing door experiment. The experiment is actually quite simple. It begins with a stranger who comes up to the experimenter as they walk by him on a street, campus or wherever the experiment is being held, and ask for directions. Now, as the subject is giving directions, two men pass between them 2

carrying a wooden door or board that prevents them from seeing each other. The subject may feel a moment's irritation, but they move on and continue describing the route. When they've finished, the stranger informs the experimenter that they have just taken part in a psychology experiment. "Did you notice anything change after the two men passed with the door?" he asks. Almost all the participants said they didnt notice anything out of the ordinary. Little do they know they are speaking to a completely different person who asked for directions initially. As they focused on one specific thing, the giving of the directions, which exhibits selective attention, they are less likely to notice their surroundings. When The first man returns, looking at them standing side by side, it is noticeable that the two are of different heigh, build, dressed differently, different haircuts and different voices, and all the while, many people did not notice. It sounds impossible, but when Daniel Simons, a psychologist at Harvard University, and his colleague Daniel Levin of Kent State University carried out this experiment, they found that about 50% of those who took part failed to notice the substitution. The subjects had succumbed to what is called change blindness. This phenomenon suggests we see far less than we think we do. This phenomenon is also exhibited in other experiments that have been done in the past. Daniel Simons actually worked with another one of his colleagues, Chris Chabris, to create another example of a change blindness experiment. In this next experiment that Mr. Simmons worked on with his colleague, Chris Chabris, there are two experimenters featured. They made it a choice for the general public to take part in the experiment by putting up a sign asking for volunteers. In this case they featured the

experiment on their college campus. The experiment began when the subject walked into the front office where they were holding the experiment. The subjects would walk up to the counter where the first experimenter would hand the subjects a consent form. When they finish signing the consent form the first experimenter would take it and then duck down behind the counter so that the they cannot see him. As the first experimenter does this, the second experimenter (already ducked down under the counter) would then come back up, as if he was the original one, and hand the subject a packet of information and tell them to go to the next room to be asked questions about the information. The two experimenters looked completely different. The first experimenter had red hair, a white shirt, green colored eyes, and longer hair while the second had dark, shorter hair, a blue shirt, and dark colored eyes. Also, this all took place without the subject ever knowing that the experiment was already happening. This is because the goal of the experiment was to see how many people saw the differences between the two experimenters while they were caught off guard and focusing on other things like signing the consent form and receiving the packet, displaying selective attention. The experiment turned out successful. It resulted in 70% if the people that took part in the experiment not noticing the change in experimenters. Many people have seen the "gorilla" video that focuses on selective attention in its explanation. This next example of a change blindness experiment that also has to do with selective attention is commonly known as the "moonwalking bear experiment." The experiment is shown as a video, so the subjects of the experiment is anyone who chooses to watch the video

and the experimenter is obviously the maker or presenter of the video who, in this case, is Phillip Northfield who originally posted it. This experiment, like the "gorilla experiment," features two teams (one wearing white shirts and one wearing black shirts) moving in between each other while passing two basketballs around (one per team). The voice in the video first asks you to pay attention and watch the team wearing white and carefully watch how many passes they make causing them to focus on one aspect of the video bringing selective attention into the video. While they are paying attention to the passing, a person in a black bear costume moonwalks through them. Most people never notice the person in the bear costume walking through, which shows their selective attention and blindness to other things in their surroundings. The video used in our survey, focuses on similar goals to these other experiments and surveys. In this case, the video was of a man named Richard Wiseman, who created the video to show people how prone they are to change blindness. He is very famous for his video featured in our project called the color changing card trick." It has been seen by over 70 million people online and on television worldwide, The Color-changing Card Trick is one of the most popular videos of recent years. It is one of the most effective videos to display the aspects of change blindness and selective attention. We hypothesize that even the most obvious of changes will go unnoticed if ones attention is fixated on a specific object or task.

METHOD In this survey a video is used that has the needed components to correctly test the subjects. This includes, a distraction to give the participants something to focus on. The video must also have very noticeable changes in the background or areas that arent part of the distraction. If the video is well made, the participants will have no idea that anything was changed from the start to the finish. Several people were brought into a room where there was a screen on which the video can be played. These participants were of mixed genders and ages. 42 of them were between the ages of 14 and 18, but there were also 11 adults present. Once the people were gathered, the video was shown. All but six of the participants were students and teachers who volunteered to

be included during school hours. Very little materials are needed to execute this survey, each volunteer is told to watch the video on a large smart-board screen or computer and is then given a pencil and some questions to answer on a piece of paper. The video used for this survey was made by Richard Wiseman who uploaded it to youtube on April 29, 2007. Although slightly dated, the results are the same.

RESULTS The results of this survey greatly supported the hypothesis. As predicted, the large majority of people were blind to the changes made in the video. They were given something to focus on and even when large objects changed from dull colors to vibrant ones, most participants were unaware. The data collected showed that of the total of 53 people, only 13 (24.53%) were aware of the change, whereas the other 40 (75.47%) were completely blind to the changes.

Just about one quarter of the participants noticed any changes in the video, and of those, some were unsure. The wording of the question may help a subject to think of something that may have changed. For example, if the question gave hints that colors were changed, it is more likely that a person would remember them. By default it is possible that a participant may know what to look for from past experiences with this type of experiment. The video had four distinct changes, the background, the table cloth, and both of the actors shirts. Of the 13 people that noticed only 6 of them noticed more than one. Of the total number of people, that means that only 11.42% of participants noticed more than one change in the video. Not one single participant said they saw something change that didnt actually change. From this research, other details involving age and detail were not significant. The data was the same for all categories of people, the ones who noticed the changes are a mix of ages and genders.

DISCUSSION This study supports the original hypothesis very strongly. The hypothesis was that people will very rarely notice changes is their surroundings if their attention is focused elsewhere. After interpreting the data, it was clear that the hypothesis was true, but not necessarily proven due to the fact that only 53 people participated and all were volunteers. This is not enough data to say its a fact. Even still, from this study one can conclude that change blindness and selective attention are very real concepts. We found that when put into situations in which the background or colors, clothing, and even people change, there is a good chance they will go unnoticed. If given something to focus on, even the greatest of changes may not be perceived. If told ahead of time that parts of the video are going to change, the viewer is much more likely to spot them. The reason these experiments are so effective is because they work with ones selective attention, which is the process of actively giving attention to one aspect of their environment and ignoring the other things. When ones attention is on something specific it cannot perceive many of the things going on around them. This makes it easy to change something in their surroundings without them knowing. It is important for people to be aware of change blindness, because there are times where it can be very important. For example, when driving it is important that you are 9

always paying attention to the road and the other cars. If you start texting or eating, your attention is focused on these activities and not on driving. While this is happening, a car could enter your blind spot or pull in front of you, and you may be blind to it and crash. If given the chance to conduct this survey again we would like to get a more widespread of participants. Extending past the school boundaries and going into more public areas with more variation of ages. Getting more people to participate helps us better predict the effect of change blindness on a global scale. We wouldve liked to use a video we made ourselves and we even made one. The video we made was a little low on quality and the changes were too subtle, so we decided to discard and use a more reliable one made by professionals.

BIBLIOGRAPHY "About Richard Wiseman." Richard Wiseman. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://richardwiseman.wordpress.com/about-me/>. Balota, D. A., and Elizabeth J. Marsh. "Cognitive Psychology: Key Readings - D. A. Balota, Elizabeth J. Marsh - Google Books." Google Books. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://books.google.com/booksid=DcJAqyCK6T8C&lpg=PA159&ots=q2zkX2cfHN&d q=daniel%20simons%20and%20daniel%20levin&pg=PA160#v=onepage&q&f=false>. "Change Blindness - Cognitive Psychology Experiment - Take Part!! - YouTube." YouTube. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0grANlx7y2E>. "Encyclopedia of Cognitive Science: Change Blindness." J. Kevin O'Regan. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://nivea.psycho.univ-paris5.fr/ECS/ECS-CB.html>. 10

Eysenck, Michael W., and Mark Keane T. Cognitive Psychology: A Student's Handbook. Hove: Psychology, 2000. Print. "Experimental Psychology - Change Blindness - YouTube." YouTube. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=38XO7ac9eSs>. Myers, David G. Psychology. New York: Worth, 1998. Print.

"Quirkology - The Colour-changing Card Trick." Quirkology: Colour Changing Card Trick. Web. 30 Jan. 2013. <http://www.quirkology.com/USA/Video_ColourChangingTrick.shtml>.

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