The sample consisted of 228 volunteer undergraduate students, offered a reward of a candy bar or small payment
The researchers created 4 videotapes on the same camera that would represent the different IV's.
Experimenters followed a written protocol on when and how to present the videos.
You're going to watch a video, please count the amount of times you see the white team pass the basketball
Team in white, got it
During the video, the participant counted the number of passes the white team made. During the video, a person dressed as a gorilla walked slowly across the scene, stopped in the middle then continued out of the frame.
The participant was then asked how many times they saw the ball passed and if they saw anythingunusual in the video. Many didn't see anything unusual, and didn't notice the gorilla at all!
I counted 15 passes
That is correct but did you notice the gorilla at all?
For the second version of the experiment the participants were told to count the number of passes between the white team. Meanwhile a woman with a black umbrella slowly walked through and left on the other side.
Once again, the participant was asked how many times they saw a ball pass, and if they saw anything unusual. A lot of the participants didn't notice the woman, although more noticed her than the gorilla.
I counted 16 passes
Indeed, but did you notice the woman with the umbrella?
In conclusion only 54% of people noticed the unexpected event across all conditions. Least noticed was transparent gorilla at 8% the most noticed was opaque umbrella woman at 100%.
It can be deduced that: -Inattentional blindness occurs more frequently in superimposition
-Blindness level depends on difficulty of the primary task
-We notice unexpected events when visually similar to what we are paying attention to
- Objects can pass through spatial area of attentional focus and be unnoticed unless they're being attended
Maya Mianowana