In 1998, researchers from Harvard and Kentucky State University targeted pedestrians on a college campus to determine how much people notice about their immediate environment. In the experiment, an actor came up to a pedestrian and asked for directions. While the pedestrian was giving the directions, two men carrying a large wooden door walked between the actor and the pedestrian, completely blocking their view of each other for several seconds. During that time, the actor was replaced by another actor, one of the different height and build, and with a different outfit, haircut and voice. A full half of the participants didn't notice the substitution.
This experiment was one of the first to illustrate the occurrence of "change blindness," which shows just how selective we are about what we take in from any given visual scene and it seems that we rely on memory and patterns significantly more than we might think. Agree or disagree?
https://public.wsu.edu/~fournier/Teaching/psych198/simons&levin1998.pdf
I feel like this mostly depends on the situation. If someone is focused on what is being said to them and is briefly interrupted, they either lose their train of thought (which could negate the ability to realize changes) or stay focused on the person speaking. This does mean that they are more aware of the person in front of them, but for something such as giving directions, it is likely that the person listening is focusing only on the words, since the information will be a part of their immediate future.
ReplyDeleteI have never heard of this study. However, I still find it interesting. Did they interview the people talking after the experiment? I don't know if I would have brought it up, as I would not have been able to know what the actors response would be. I would just keep talking.
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