VR lab

Stimulus determinants of the change blindness phenomenon

 

Authors: A. Gusev, O. Mikhaylova, I. Utochkin

 

Published: in process

 

Key words: spatial attention, change blindness, stimulus determinants.

 

   

   This work describes techniques and procedures that are used to research the change blindness phenomenon. The role of stimulus parameters in completing a visual task (detecting changes) was investigated.

   The following parameters of visual stimuli varied in a chronometric experiment: number of objects, their location in stimulus space, shape of objects including a new object that attracts attention as well as various changes of single objects such as appearance/disappearance, shift, change of color and shape.

   The results of this study indicate that change blindness can have different intensity (time of detecting changes in flickering images), which depends on the number of objects, their location in stimulus space (structured or randomized) and the type of change (the most complicated one was change of color):

1. the “number of objects” factor has considerable influence on the intensity of change blindness and is the most powerful;

2. shape of objects within the image is not crucial for change detection time;

3. spatial organization of objects is important for successful detection of changes. The changes are detected quicker in images with clear organization;

4. a distraction (a word) doesn’t have any considerable influence on change detection;

5.  change detection time increases with increasing interstimulus interval from 200 to 400 ms;

6. detection of shift, appearance/disappearance is quicker than detection of color change.

   These results let us create stimulus pattern for change blindness experiments  that differ in complexity and  thus examine a wider range of hypotheses  about the function of psychological mechanisms of spatial attention, which are used to explain this phenomenon.