Even If You Don't Blink, You'll Miss It...
Science Daily —
Neuropsychologists conducted an experiment in which they exposed
subjects to rapid sequences of images, some of which had gory or erotic
content. Most people could not remember seeing ordinary images that
came right after a more shocking one, a phenomenon the scientists
dubbed "attentional rubbernecking."...
BACKGROUND: New psychological findings from researchers at
Vanderbilt University and Yale University show that when people are
shown violent or erotic images, they frequently fail to understand,
recognize and remember what they see immediately afterwards. They also
found that people who are less anxious are more successful in training
themselves to focus on the search for a specific image, rather than
blanking out when an emotionally intense image appears.
ABOUT THE STUDY: There were two separate experiments. In the
first, subjects were shown hundreds of pictures, a random mix of
disturbing images and neutral landscape images. They were instructed to
look for a particular target image. Two to eight pictures would flash
by, and one of them was an irrelevant, emotionally negative, or neutral
image. The result: the closer the negative pictures were to the target
image, the more frequently the subject failed to spot the target. The
second study was similar, substituting erotic images for emotionally
negative ones, revealing the same basic effect.
ATTENTIONAL RUBBERNECKING: This involuntary effect ý dubbed
"attentional rubbernecking" or "emotion-induced blindness" -- could be
critical during witness testimony in a trial; disturbing or emotionally
intense images might prevent a witness from observing all the details.
It could have an impact when driving at 60 MPH, or when someone steps
out into the street at the wrong time. This is not simply a momentary
lapse in focus or concentration. People literally fail to see important
visual elements one-fifth of a second after seeing violent or erotic
images, without being aware that they have blanked out for a split
second.
WHY IT HAPPENS: Vanderbilt psychologist David Zald believes
there is a kind of bottleneck for information processing in the brain.
If a certain type of powerful stimulus -- such as violent or erotic
imagery -- captures out attention, it can "jam up" the bottleneck so
subsequent information can't get through. Zald cites prior studies that
demonstrated there are limits to how much information people can hold
in their visual short-term memory. So we can miss something right in
front of our eyes if we're paying attention to something else.
You can watch the video here:
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006-11-12/
***
The Human Factors and Ergonomics Society contributed to the information contained in the TV portion of this report.
For more information about this story, contact:
David Zald
Vanderbilt University
Tel: 615-343-6076
This e-mail address is being protected from spam bots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it
Human Factors and Ergonomics Society
Santa Monica, CA 90406
Tel: 310-394-1811
***
http://www.sciencedaily.com/videos/2006-11-12/
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