Individual differences in inattentional blindness (Simons et al.)

Question 1

2 research variables

Answer 1

1. individual differences in cognitive ability or personality:
   - interference, attention span, memory
   - positive/negative affectivity or openness/absorption
2. inattentional blindness

Question 2

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 2

failure to notice unexpected objects/events when performing an attention-demanding task

Question 3

main basis for the study

Answer 3

people vary in their ability to perform attention-demanding tasks

Question 4

result and possible explanation

Answer 4

little evidence for the relationship
(slightly larger effect size for transient (brief appearance of the object) than for sustained inattentional blindness tasks.)

• the likelihood of someone noticing an unexpected object might be due to chance rather than individual differences (eg. “secret gorilla” - same results across demographics)
• small samples
• inattentional blindness tasks do not provide a reliable measure
• insufficient reporting in some experiments (need of both percentage and ratio of noticers)