Simon And Chabris

Question 1

What year was Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 1

1999

Question 2

What is inattentional blindness?

Answer 2

When people fail to see something (even if it is in their field of visions/precisely where they are looking) as they are paying attention to something else

Question 3

Who originally investigated inattentional blindness and when?

Answer 3

Neisser in the 1970s

Question 4

What was Neisser’s study?

Answer 4

Participants were shown a video where two teams of players passed basketballs between them

A woman carrying an umbrella walked across the screen in front of them

Question 5

What were Neisser’s results?

Answer 5

22/28 participants failed to see the woman carrying the umbrella

Question 6

How long did the lady walk across the screen for in Neisser’s study.

Answer 6

4 seconds

Question 7

How was Neisser’s video made?

Answer 7

By overlaying three separately filmed videos in top of each other

Black shirt team passing
White shirt team passing
A woman carrying an umbrella walking across the screen

Created a ghostly/transparent effect

Question 8

What were the aims of Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 8

~ Investigate whether results from Neisser’s research were affected by the way he made his video (transparent effect) or whether the same results would be obtained from a more true-to-life opaque video (two teams + unexpected event were all filmed together)

~ Also wanted to investigate effect of other factors:
Nature of the unexpected event
What the participants were told to do
Difficulty of the task participants were given to do during the video

Question 9

What were the characteristics of Simon and Chabris sample?

Answer 9

~ 228 participants

~ Almost all undergraduate students at Harvard University in USA

~ Data from 36 of these was not analysed e.g. due to being aware of the concept of inattentional blindness

~ Results were based on data from a sample of 192 participants
~ 12 per condition

Question 10

What was the procedure of Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 10

~ Participants all watched a 75 second video
~ They were then asked questions about what they had seen
~ Participants were in one of 16 conditions based on the manipulation of four independent variables

Question 11

What were the four independent variables in Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 11

~ Opaque or transparent video

~ Unexpected event: woman carrying an umbrella or a woman wearing a gorilla costume (both walked across the screen from left to right and were in sight for 5 seconds)

~ Task of counting the basketball passes of either: team wearing black shirts or team wearing white shirts

~ Given easy task (count number of passes made by their team) or a hard task (count number of aerial passes and the number of bounces made by their team)

Question 12

How many conditions were there in Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 12

16

Question 13

What percentage of the time did Simon and Chabris participants notice the unexpected event?

Answer 13

54%

Question 14

What percentage of the time did Simon and Chabris participants not notice the unexpected event?

Answer 14

46%

Question 15

What were Simon and Chabris results for the video appearance variable?

Answer 15

Opaque - 65.5% saw the unexpected event

Transparent - 41.6% saw the unexpected event

Question 16

What were Simon and Chabris results for the event variable?

Answer 16

Woman with umbrella - 65.5% saw the unexpected event

Gorilla - 42.6% saw the unexpected event

Question 17

What were Simon and Chabris results for the similarity of task variable?

Answer 17

Black team - 67% saw the unexpected event

White team - 8% saw the unexpected event

Question 18

What were Simon and Chabris results for the difficulty of task variable?

Answer 18

Easy - 63.5% saw the unexpected event

Difficult- 44.6% saw the unexpected event

Question 19

What were the conclusions of Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 19

~ Study shows paying attention to one task may result in people failing to see an unexpected event nearly half of the time (even when it is right in front of them and lasts for a sustained period of time)

~ This provides further evidence for sustained inattentional blindness

Question 20

What two things can be commented on about Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 20

External reliability

Population validity

Question 21

How is the external reliability of Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 21

It has a large sample size which is enough to establish a consistent effect

However the number in each condition (12) is not enough to establish a consistent effect

Question 22

What debates does Simon and Chabris link to?

Answer 22

Usefulness

Holism

Determinism

Question 23

How does Simon and Chabris study link to the usefulness debate?

Answer 23

~ Findings can be used to aid the attention of students
~ Done by altering the task and stimuli presented to them

Question 24

How is the population validity in Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 24

~ Sample was mainly Harvard students so not very generalisable to other groups
~ E.g older people may have lower attention levels

Question 25

How does Simon and Chabris study link to the Holism vs Reductionalism debate?

Answer 25

~ Hollistic
~ Investigated multiple factors influencing attention:

-Task similarity
- Task difficulty
- Video transparency
- Unexpected event itself

Question 26

How does Simon and Chabris study link to the Determinism vs Free will debate?

Answer 26

~ Determinism
~ Attention of the participants was determined by the task and video presented to them

Question 27

What are the similarities between Moray’s study and Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 27

~ Both included deception

~ Both were lab experiments

~ Both had students within their sample

Question 28

What are the differences between Moray’s study and Simon and Chabris study?

Answer 28

~ Different experimental designs

~ Different types of attention being studied

Question 29

How has Simon and Chabris study changed our understanding of attention compared to Moray’s?

Answer 29

~ Tells us about a new type of attention (visual vs auditory)

~ Tells us about how you might miss something rather than notice it

Question 30

Why has Simon and Chabris study not changed our understanding of attention compared to Moray’s?

Answer 30

It tells us the same thing: if we are focused on one thing we are likely to miss something else

Question 31

Why has Simon and Chabris study not changed our understanding of individual diversity compare to Moray’s?

Answer 31

Both showed individual differences in attention but did not investigate why this was the case

Question 32

Why has Simon and Chabris study not changed our understanding of social diversity compare to Moray’s?

Answer 32

They both were carried out on similar types of people (Oxford/Harvard students)

Question 33

How has Simon and Chabris study changed our understanding of cultural diversity compare to Moray’s?

Answer 33

Simon and Chabris studied in the US while Moray studied in the UK

Question 34

Why has Simon and Chabris study not changed our understanding of cultural diversity compare to Moray’s?

Answer 34

They both found similar results so there seems to be no cultural differences