Simon and Chabris - Background & Theory

Question 1

What is visual perception?

Answer 1

a cognitive process in which an individual interprets, organises, and elaborates on information that enters the brain via the eyes

Question 2

How does the brain perceive or interpret visual information?

Answer 2

via the optic nerve

Question 3

Why is visual perception often criticised?

Answer 3

• too much information to process
• selective nature

Question 4

How is the brain selective with information?

Answer 4

it filters out what is relevant and essential & omits what is not

Question 5

What highly influences what people see?

Answer 5

the brain as it subjectively decides what to focus on

Question 6

What is in-attentional blindness?

Answer 6

refers to not noticing something because attention is focused on something else

Question 7

What does this study show?

Answer 7

that if someone is focused on a particular task (involving visual perception) other events (even unusual or unexpected) go unnoticed

Question 8

What are the main types of theory for this study?

Answer 8

• Focused Visual Attention
• Change Blindness
• In-attentional Blindness
• Divided attention

Question 9

What does the theory of focused visual attention say about our environment?

Answer 9

there is too much going on in every day life simultaneously than can be perceived at any one time

Question 10

What are the mechanisms of attention meant to do?

Answer 10

select objects of interest for further processing

Question 11

What does vision do as a mechanism of attention?

Answer 11

• provided by eye movements
• fixate on particular regions so they benefit from the greater activity of the fovea

Question 12

What is the fovea?

Answer 12

region at the back of the eye responsible for central and sharp vision

Question 13

What does vision allow?

Answer 13

us to fixate on things of importance in our environment

Question 14

Why is attention necessary?

Answer 14

to detect environmental change

Question 15

What does the change blindness theory suggest about people?

Answer 15

that individuals do not detect large and obvious changes in the environment when they are not in the scene of centre interest

Question 16

What do people remember and perceive according to the change blindness theory?

Answer 16

only objects and details that receive focused attention

Question 17

Why do people have in-attentional blindness even when fixated on something?

Answer 17

because a visually demanding task ‘loads’ the brains attention so an individual becomes blind to distractions and performance improves

Question 18

What is a result of not paying attention to distractions?

Answer 18

improved performance

Question 19

What is Kahneman’s theory about divided attention?

Answer 19

limited capacity theory

Question 20

What is the limited capacity theory?

Answer 20

• limited amount of attention is allocated
• attention has a capacity
• capacity of attention is task dependent

Question 21

What is Allport, Eysenck, and Baddley’s theory of divided attention?

Answer 21

multi-channel theory

Question 22

What is the multi-channel theory?

Answer 22

• there are multiple modules for processing
• different modules for different tasks
• easy to divide between modules

Question 23

What is Schneider and Shiffin’s theory of divided attention?

Answer 23

the automaticity model

Question 24

What is the automaticity model?

Answer 24

• that automaticity develops with practice
• consistent mappings between stimuli and response
• action and reaction are consistent
• varied mappings = same action diff reaction

Question 25

What is an example of the automaticity model?

Answer 25

tennis and badminton - same action - different reaction tennis allows ball to hit the floor badminton does not

Question 26

What is Norman and Shallice's theory of divided attention?

Answer 26

SAS - Supervisory Attentional System

Question 27

What is SAS?

Answer 27

- schemas - activated or repressed - influence of environmental conditions - every stimulus condition turns on the activation of a response - contention scheduling = control over behaviour and thoughts - SAS controls schema activation

Question 28

What do previous studies of attention show?

Answer 28

increasing interest in the issue of the precision of visual representations

Question 29

What is the typical format of previous research?

Answer 29

- a continuous task - requires to focus on one aspect of dynamic visual scenes whilst ignoring others - an unexpected event

Question 30

What are the results of previous research?

Answer 30

- majority of observers did not report seeing the unexpected event even though it was clearly visible

Question 31

What issues did previous researchers encounter?

Answer 31

implications for the understanding of perception with and without attention

Question 32

What approach which fell out of use did Sperry wish to revive?

Answer 32

empirical approach

Question 33

Which researchers formed the basis of this study?

Answer 33

Becklen, Cervone, Stoffregen

Question 34

What is Becklen and Stoffregen's study about?

Answer 34

dual attention in dynamically structured naturalistic events

Question 35

What are the key points of the dual attention - Becklen and Stoffregen study?

Answer 35

- videotapes of two naturalistic events - basketball game and a vocalising face

Question 36

Who are the key figures for previous research into in-attentional blindness?

Answer 36

Mack and Rock (1998)

Question 37

What did Mack and Rock do?

Answer 37

ask participants to judge which of the two arms of a cross were longer

Question 38

What are the key points of Mack and Rock's study?

Answer 38

- 4th trial - unexpected object appeared - told on some trials that something would appear (demand characteristics) - 25% in-attentionally blind when cross was presented at fixation and object parafoveally - 75% in-attentionally blind when cross parafoveally and unexpected object fixation - observers typically notice an unexpected object if it is their own name or a smiley face

Question 39

What is object parafoveally?

Answer 39

when the object is not fully in sight and blurred into the background

Question 40

What did Rubin and Hua find?

Answer 40

that observers do not tend to notice their own name if a letter is changed

Question 41

What was Becklen and Neisser's previous research into selective looking?

Answer 41

- two overlapping simultaneous events - hand slapping game - people passing a basketball

Question 42

What did Becklen and Neisser's procedure look like?

Answer 42

had to press a button every time they saw a slap or a pass

Question 43

What was Becklen, Neisser, and Littman's previous research into selective looking?

Answer 43

- two ball games - black shirts vs. white shirts - a transparent woman with an umbrella = unexpected event

Question 44

What was Becklen and Cervone's previous research into selective looking?

Answer 44

- investigating the effect of eliminating the delay between umbrella woman's appearance and the questioning of subjects - found no difference

Question 45

What was Stoffregen's previous research into selective looking?

Answer 45

- a single video camera - no superimposing where the umbrella woman occlued (obstructed) the players - only had 12 passes - umbrella woman was noticeable for longer (12 seconds) - people smaller on screen - 3/20 reported seeing unexpected object