Change blindness

The laboratory study of change blindness began in the

1970s within the context of eye movement research. McConkie conducted the rst studies on change blindness
involving changes in words and texts; in these studies, the
changes were introduced while the observer performed a
saccadic eye movement. Observers often failed to notice
these changes.[5]
In the late 1980s, the rst clear experimental demonstration was published showing very poor change detection in
complex displays over brief intervals without eye movements being involved. Pashler (1988) showed that observers were poor at detecting changes introduced into
arrays of letters while the display was ickered o and on,
even if the oset was as brief as 67 milliseconds (although
osets briefer than that produced much more eective
change detection). Pashler concluded by noting how odd
it was that people generally report having a clear sense
of apprehending the identities and locations of large numbers of objects in a scene (p. 377), and that given this
introspective sense, it seemed quite surprising how poor
is their detection of changes.[2]

Example of images that can be used in a change blindness task

Change blindness is a surprising perceptual phenomenon that occurs when a change in a visual stimulus is introduced and the observer does not notice it.
For example, observers often fail to notice major dierences introduced into an image while it ickers o and on
again.[1] Peoples poor ability to detect changes has been
argued to reect fundamental limitations of human attention. Change blindness has become a highly researched
topic and some have argued that it may have important
practical implications in areas such as eyewitness testimony and distractions while driving.

1
1.1

History of change blindness

1.3 Research in the 1990s and 2000s

Early anecdotal observations of change

blindness

2
3

Outside of the domain of psychology, phenomena related

to change blindness have been discussed since the 19th
century.[2] When lm editing was introduced in movies,
editors began to notice that changes to the background
were not noticed by those watching the lm.[2] Going
back much earlier, William James (18421910) was the
rst to mention the lack of ability to detect change in his
book Principles of Psychology. (1890) [2]

1.2

Earliest experimental
change blindness

reports

4
15

5
6
7
8
9

of

10
14

Research on change blindness developed from investigation in other phenomena such as eye movements and
working memory.[2] Although individuals have a very
good memory as to whether or not they have seen an image, they are generally poor at recalling the smaller details
in that image.[3][4] When we are visually stimulated with
a complex picture, it is more likely that individuals retain
only a gist of an image and not the image in its entirety.

13

12

11

Saccadic eye movements have been known to induce change

blindness

With the rise of the ability to present complex, realworld images on a computer screen, Dr. George McConkie, in the early 1990s, as part of the new initiatives of the new Beckman Institute for Advanced Sci1

2 CURRENT RESEARCH (20102012)

ence and Technology, began a renewed attempt to investigate why the world looked stable and continuous despite
the shifting retinal input signal that accompanied each
saccade.[6][7] This research began when John Grimes and
Dr. George McConkie (1996) began to use actual photographs to study visual stability.[8] This development in
change blindness research was able to show the eects
of change blindness in more realistic settings.[9] Additionally, further research stated that rather large changes
will not be detected when they occur during saccadic
movements of the eye. Another nding based on similar studies stated that a change was easily picked up on
by participants when the eye was xated on the point
of change. Therefore, the eye must be directly xated
on the area of change for it to be noticed. This was
called the saccade target theory of transsaccadic memory
of visual stability.[7][10][6] However, other research in the
mid-1990s has indicated that individuals still have diculty detecting change even when they are directly xated on a particular scene. A study by Rensink, ORegan,
& Clarke demonstrated that change blindness can have
an eect even if the eye was xated on a scene. In this
study, a picture was presented followed by a blank screen
or masking stimulus, which was followed by the initial picture with a change. The masking stimulus almost
acts like a saccadic movement of the eye which makes
it signicantly more dicult for individuals to detect
the change.[9] This was a critical contribution to change
blindness research because it demonstrated that a change
can remain unnoticed with the smallest disruptions.

in change blindness begins even before the change is presented. More specically, there is increased brain activity in the parietal-occipital and occipital regions prior to
the emergence of a change in a change blindness task.[13]
Researchers have also indicated there is a dierence in
brain activity between detecting a change and identifying
change in an image. Detecting a change is associated with
a higher ERP (Event-related potential) whereas identifying change is associated with an increased ERP before
and after the change was presented.[14]
Additional research using uctuations in ERPs (Eventrelated potentials) has observed that changes in pictures (change blindness) are represented in the brain,
even without the perceivers conscious awareness of the
change.[15]

2.2 Lucid dreaming

Lucid dreaming occurs when one realizes that the events

experienced within a dream are bizarre or would not occur in ones waking life.[16] As such, the inability to notice
the bizarre nature of the dream has been coined as an example of change blindness, also known as individuals who
are non-lucid dreamers. However, a recent study found
that lucid dreamers did not perform better on a change
blindness task than non-lucid dreamers.[16] Therefore, the
relation between lucid dreamers and change blindness has
Research on change blindness proceeded one step further been discredited to some degree.
into practical applications of this phenomenon. For example, there does not have to be a masking stimulus in
order for individuals to miss a change in a scene. Individuals often take signicantly longer to notice certain 2.3 Change blindness in teams
changes if there are a few small, high contrast shapes that
are temporarily splattered over a picture.[11] This method
Another interesting area of research is the decreased
for testing change blindness is called mudsplashes.[11]
susceptibility to change blindness when individuals are
This method is particularly relevant to individuals driving
placed in teams. Although change blindness is still obin a car when there is a visual obstruction on the windserved within teams, research has indicated that changes
shield. This obstruction may impair an individuals abilbetween images are noticed more when individuals work
ity to detect a change in their environment which could
in teams as opposed to individually.[17] Both teamwork
result in severe negative consequences while driving.
and communication assist teams in correctly identifying
changes between images.[17]

2
2.1

Current research (20102012)

Change detection

Research indicates that detecting changes in a change

blindness task is easier when items are holistically processed, such as faces. Individuals notice a change faster
when required to detect changes in facial features than
when required to detect changes in images of houses.[12]
However, individuals are better at identifying the nature
of the change in houses.[12]

2.4 Expertise and change blindness

Another recent study looked at the relation between expertise and change blindness. Physics experts were
more likely to notice a change between two physics problems than novices.[18] It is hypothesized that experts are
better at analyzing problems on a deeper level whereas
novices employ a surface-level analysis. This research
suggests that observing the phenomenon of change blindOther researchers have discovered that mental processing ness may be conditional upon the context of the task.

3.3

2.5

Mudsplashes

Choice blindness

Cognitive psychologists expanded the study of Change

Blindness into decision-making. In one study, they
showed participants ten pairs of faces and asked them to
choose which face was more attractive. For some pairs,
the experimenter used sleight of hand to show participants a face they had NOT chosen. Only 26% of subjects noticed the mismatch between their choice of face
and the dierent face they were shown instead. The experimenters tested pairs of faces that were either high in
similarity or low in similarity, but the detection rate was
no dierent between those conditions. Subjects were also
asked to give reasons why they had chosen a face (although due to the sleight of hand they actually hadn't chosen it). Despite the mismatch, subjects gave responses
that were comparable in emotionality, specicity, and
certainty for faces they had or had not actually chosen.[19]
Further research has showed that the failure to detect mismatches between intention and outcome exists in consumer product choices [20] and in political attitudes.[21]

3
3.1

Change detection paradigms

Flicker paradigm

In this paradigm, an image and an altered image are

switched back and forth with a blank screen in the
middle.[1] This procedure is performed at a very high rate
and observers are told to click a button as soon as they see
the dierence between the two images.[1] This method
of studying change blindness has helped researchers discover two very important ndings. The rst nding is
that it usually takes a while for individuals to notice a
change even though they are being instructed to search
for a change.[1] In some cases, it can even take individuals over one minute of constant ickers to determine the
location of the change. The second important nding is
that changes towards the middle of a picture are noticed
at a faster rate than changes on the side of a picture.[1]
Although the icker paradigm was rst used in the late
1990s, it is still commonly used in current research on
change blindness and has contributed to current knowledge on change blindness.

3.2

Forced choice detection paradigm

Individuals who are tested under the forced choice

paradigm are only allowed to view the two pictures once
before they make a choice.[9] Both images are also shown
for the same amount of time.[9] The icker paradigm and
the forced choice detection paradigm are known as intentional change detection tasks, which means that the participants know they are trying to detect change. These
studies have shown that even while participants are focusing their attention and searching for a change, the change

3
may remain unnoticed.

3.3 Mudsplashes
Mudsplashes are small, high contrast shapes that are
scattered over an image, but do not cover the area of
the picture in which the change occurs. This mudsplash
eect prevents individuals from noticing the change between the two pictures.[11] A practical application of this
paradigm is that dangerous stimuli in a scene may not
be noticed if there are slight obstructions in an individuals visual eld. Previously, it has been stated that humans hold a very good internal representation of visual
stimuli. Studies involving mudsplashes have shown that
change blindness may occur because our internal representations of visual stimuli may be much worse than previous studies have shown.[11] Mudsplashes have not been
used as frequently as the icker or forced choice detection
paradigms in change blindness research, but have yielded
many signicant and groundbreaking results.

3.4 Foreground-background segregation

The foreground-background segregation method for
studying change blindness uses photographs of scenery
with a distinct foreground and background. Researchers
using this paradigm have found that individuals are usually able to recognize relatively small changes in the foreground of an image.[22] In addition, large changes to
the colour of the background take signicantly longer to
detect.[22] This paradigm is critical to change blindness
research because many previous studies have not examined the location of changes in the visual eld.

4 Neuroanatomy of change blindness

4.1 Neuroimaging
Various studies have used MRIs (Magnetic Resonance
Imaging) to measure brain activity when individuals detect (or fail to detect) a change in the environment. When
individuals detect a change, the neural networks of the
parietal and right dorsolateral prefrontal lobe regions are
strongly activated.[23][24] If individuals were instructed to
detect changes in faces, the fusiform face area was also
signicantly activated. In addition, other structures such
as the pulvinar, cerebellum, and inferior temporal gyrus
also showed an increase in activation when individuals reported a change.[24] It has been proposed that the parietal
and frontal cortex along with the cerebellum and pulvinar might be used to direct an organisms attention to a
change in the environment. A decrease of activation in
these brain areas was observed if a change was not detected by the organism.[23] Furthermore, the neurological

5 FACTORS INFLUENCING CHANGE BLINDNESS

action time to detect the change.[26] Therefore, it is critical for organisms to attend to the change in order for it
to be detected. Organisms are only able to detect this
change once the visual stimulation comes through the eye
(its movements are controlled by the superior colliculus)
and is subsequently processed through the visual stream.

5 Factors inuencing change blindness

5.1 Age
MRI image

activation of these highlighted brain areas was correlated

with an individuals conscious awareness of change and
not the physical change itself.[24]
Other studies using fMRI (Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging) scanners have shown that when change
is not consciously detected, there was a signicant decrease in the dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal lobe
regions.[23] These results further the importance of the
dorsolateral prefrontal and parietal cortext in the detection of visual change. In addition to fMRI studies, recent research has used transcranial magnetic stimulation
(TMS) in order to inhibit areas of the brain while participants were instructed to try to detect the change between
two images.[25] The results show that when the posterior
parietal cortex (PPC) is inhibited, individuals are significantly slower at detecting change.[25] The PPC is critical for encoding and maintaining visual images in short
term working memory, which demonstrates the importance of the PPC in terms of detecting changes between
images.[25] For a change to be detected, the information
of the rst picture needs to be held in working memory
and compared to the second picture. If the PPC is inhibited, the area of the brain responsible for encoding visual
images will not function properly. The information will
not be encoded and will not be held in working memory
and compared to the second picture, thus inducing change
blindness.

4.2

Role of attention

The role of attention is critical for an organisms ability to

detect change. In order for an organism to detect change,
visual stimulation must enter through eye and proceed
through the visual stream in the brain. A study in 2004
demonstrated that if the superior colliculus (responsible
for eye movements) of a monkeys brain is electrically
stimulated, there would be a signicant decrease in re-

Older individuals have been known to have more diculty detecting changes

Age has been implicated as one of the factors which modulates the severity of change blindness. In a study conducted by Veiel et al. it was found that older individuals
were slower to detect the changes in a change blindness
experiment than were younger individuals.[27] This trend
was also noticed by Caird et al., who found that drivers
aged 65 and older were more prone to making incorrect
decisions after a change blindness paradigm was used at
an intersection, than were participants aged 1864.[28]

5.2 Attention
Attention is another factor that has been implicated in
change blindness. increasing shifts in attention decrease
the severity of change blindness[29] and changes in the
foreground are detected more readily than changes made
to the background of an image, an eect of the intentional
bias for foreground elements.[30]

7.1

5.3

Eyewitness testimony

Object presentation

Object presentation is the way in which objects appear

and is a factor that determines the occurrence of change
blindness. Change blindness can occur even without a delay between the original image and the altered image, but
only if the change in the image forces the viewer to redene the objects in the image.[31] Additionally, the appearance of a new object is more resistant to change blindness
than a looming object, and both the appearance of a new
object and the looming of an object are more resistant to
change blindness than the receding of an object.[32] Furthermore, the appearance or onset of an object is more
resistant to the occurrence of change blindness than the
disappearance or oset of an object.[33]

5.4

7.1 Eyewitness testimony

Research in change blindness has uncovered the possibility of inaccuracy in eyewitness testimony.[38] In many
cases, witnesses are rarely able to detect a change in the
criminals identity unless rst intending to remember the
incident in question.[38] This inability to detect a change
in identity can lead to inaccuracy in identifying criminals, mistaken eyewitness identication, and wrongful
conviction.[39] Therefore, eyewitness testimonies should
be handled with caution in court in order to avoid any of
these negative consequences.[39]

7.2 Driving ability

Substance use

Substance use has been found to aect the detection biases on change detection tasks. If an individual was presented with two changes simultaneously, those that had
a change related to the substance they use regularly reported using the substance more than those detecting the
neutral stimuli. This indicates a relationship between substance use and change detection within a change blindness paradigm.[34] This bias for devoting more attention
to the drug-relevant stimuli is also observed with problem
drinkers. Individuals who have a more severe drinking
problem are quicker to detect changes in alcohol-related
stimuli than in neutral stimuli.[35]
Trac collision

Change blindness in other senses

In addition to change blindness induced by changes in

visual images, change blindness also exists for the other
senses:
Change deafness - change blindness for auditory information.
Olfactory - human is constantly in a state of change
blindness due to the poor spatial and temporal resolutions with which scents are detected.[36]

Older drivers make more incorrect decisions than

younger drivers when faced with a change in the scene
at an intersection.[28] This can be attributed to the fact
that older individuals notice change at a slower rate compared to younger individuals.[28] In addition, the location and relevance of changes have an eect on what is
noticed while driving.[40] The reaction time to changes
in the drivers peripherals is much slower than the reaction time to changes that occur towards the center of the
drivers visual eld.[40] Furthermore, drivers are also able
to recognize more relevant changes as opposed to irrelevant ones.[40] Research on the eects of change blindness
while driving could provide insight into potential explanations of why car accidents occur.

Somatosensory - change blindness for tactile stimuli

has been observed using the mudsplash paradigm for
change blindness.[37]
7.3

Military

Military command and control personnel who monitor

multiple displays have a delayed time to accurately iden7 Practical implications
tify changes due to the necessity of verifying the changes,
as well as the eective 'guessing' on some trials.[41] Due
The phenomenon of change blindness has practical im- to the fact that control personnel have delayed reaction
plications in the following areas:
because of change blindness, an interface design of com-

10

puter work stations may be extremely benecial to increase the reaction time and accuracy.[41]

Change blindness blindness

REFERENCES

Neuroimaging
Selective attention
Saccade
Salience (neuroscience)

Change blindness blindness is dened as a misplaced

condence in ones ability to correctly identify visual
changes.[42] People are fairly condent in their ability to
detect a change, but most people exhibit poor performance on a change blindness task.

Spot the dierence

Visual short term memory

10 References
8.1

Factors aecting change blindness

blindness

Perceived Success - A higher perception of success

from previous experience inates the individuals
condence for success in future experiences.[43]
Search Time - A longer time spent looking for the
visual change creates the impression of poor performance on the task.[43] In other words, a shorter time
in identifying a visual change creates the impression
of good performance and thus the individual will be
overcondent in this ability.

8.2

Spotlight eect and change blindness

blindness

The spotlight eect is a social phenomenon that is dened as an overestimation of the ability of others to notice us.[44] A seemingly obvious change such as another
individual changing a sweater during a memory task is
rarely noticed.[44] However, the individuals switching the
sweater tend to overestimate the ability of the test writers to notice the change in sweaters.[44] In the spotlight
eect, this poor performance is a result of the overestimation of others ability to notice us whereas in change
blindness blindness it is the overestimation of others ability to notice the sweater change. In other words, it is the
distinction between noticing dierences on a person and
noticing dierences between any images.

See also
Attention
Change deafness
Inattentional blindness
Introspection illusion
Memory
Motion blindness

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12

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11

Further reading

Becker, Mark; Pashler, Harold (Dec 2002),

Volatile visual representations: failing to detect changes in recently processed information
(PDF), Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 9 (4): 744
750, doi:10.3758/BF03196330, ISSN 1069-9384,
PMID 12613678
Henderson, John M.; Hollingworth, Andrew (1999),
The Role of Fixation Position in Detecting Scene
Changes Across Saccades (PDF), Psychological Science 10 (5): 438443, doi:10.1111/14679280.00183
Levin, Daniel T.; Simons, Daniel J. (1997), Failure
to detect changes to attended objects in motion pictures (PDF), Psychonomic Bulletin and Review 4
(4): 501506, doi:10.3758/BF03214339
Myers, David G. (2004), Psychology
Pashler,
Harold E. (1988),
Familiarity
and visual change detection (PDF), Perception & Psychophysics 44 (4):
369378,
doi:10.3758/BF03210419,
ISSN 0031-5117,
PMID 3226885
Silverman, M.; Mack, A. (2006), Change blindness and priming: When it does and does not
occur, Consciousness and Cognition 15 (2): 409
422, doi:10.1016/j.concog.2005.08.003, PMID
16376573
Simons, Daniel J.; Levin, Daniel T. (1998), Failure
to detect changes to people during a real-world interaction (PDF), Psychonomic Bulletin and Review
5 (4): 644649, doi:10.3758/BF03208840

EXTERNAL LINKS

Smith, Hayley; Milne, Elizabeth (March 2009),

Reduced change blindness suggests enhanced attention to detail in individuals with autism,
J Child Psychol Psychiatry 50 (3): 300306,
doi:10.1111/j.1469-7610.2008.01957.x
Simons, Daniel; Chabris, Christopher (May 1999),
Gorillas in our midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events (PDF), Gorillas in our
midst: sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic
events 28, pp. 10591074, doi:10.1068/p2952,
PMID 10694957

12 External links
Examples of change blindness
Ten demos of change blindness at the University of
British Columbia (requires QuickTime)
Demos at the University of Illinois of gradual
changes to scenes and examples of motion-picture
based change detection. Also includes demonstrations of inattentional blindness. (requires QuickTime and some require Java)
Dan Dennett's 2003 talk at TED shows some visual illusions including several striking examples of
change blindness.
Re-creation of Simons & Levin experiment by
British illusionist Derren Brown

13
13.1

Text and image sources, contributors, and licenses

Text

Change blindness Source: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Change_blindness?oldid=660857006 Contributors: The Anome, William Avery,

Dcoetzee, Auric, Robinh, Ruakh, Tremolo, Lee J Haywood, Stern~enwiki, Patrickwilken, Random contributor, Bobo192, John Vandenberg, MrTree, Evil Monkey, MickWest, Madmardigan53, Kzollman, GregorB, Rjwilmsi, Bgwhite, Wavelength, Mahahahaneapneap,
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Leszek Jaczuk, Looie496, Yobot, AnomieBOT, Sertion, Citation bot, LilHelpa, JimVC3, LMorland, Aaron Kauppi, Citation bot 1, I
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Lbachinskaya10, ChrisGualtieri, JackySparrow, Khazar2, Dobie80, Adam Weinberger, Everything Is Numbers, VisualCognition, Commonoutlaw, Jpedro.john, Stamptrader and Anonymous: 53

13.2

Images

File:Accident_at_Station_7.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/e/e9/Accident_at_Station_7.jpg License:

CC0 Contributors: http://digital.lib.uh.edu/cdm4/item_viewer.php?CISOROOT=/p15195coll32&CISOPTR=66&CISOBOX=1&REC=1
Original artist: Unknown
File:ElderlyWomanInGlasses_cropped.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/1/17/ElderlyWomanInGlasses_
cropped.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors:
ElderlyWomanInGlasses.jpg Original artist: ElderlyWomanInGlasses.jpg: Pacian
File:Eye_scheme_mulitlingual.svg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/9/9b/Eye_scheme_mulitlingual.svg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: deutsche Version ohne Farben (siehe unten) Original artist: Talos, colorized by Jakov
File:Globe_and_high_court_(Spot_the_difference).jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/f/f9/Globe_and_
high_court_%28Spot_the_difference%29.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors:
Globe_and_high_court_x.jpg Original artist: Globe_and_high_court_x.jpg: Fir0002
File:Mrt_big.jpg Source: http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/5/50/Mrt_big.jpg License: CC-BY-SA-3.0 Contributors: Helmut Januschka Original artist: Helmut Januschka

13.3

Content license

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