Our perception of the visual world is fallible. Unattended objects may change without us noticing as long as the change does not capture attention (change blindness). However, it is often assumed that changes to a fixated object will be noticed if it is attended. In this experiment we demonstrate that participants fail to detect a change in identity of a coin during a magic trick even though eyetracking indicates that the coin is tracked by the eyes throughout the trick. The change is subsequently detected when participants are instructed to look for it. These results suggest that during naturalistic viewing, attention can be focused on an object at fixation without including all of its features.
HendersonJ MHollingworthA, 2003“Global transsaccadic change blindness during scene perception”Psychological Science14493–497
2.
KuhnGAmlaniA ARensinkR A, 2008a“Towards a science of magic”Trends in Cognitive Sciences12349–335
3.
KuhnGTatlerB W, 2005“Magic and fixation: Now you don't see it, now you do”Perception341153–1161
4.
KuhnGTatlerB WFindlayJ MColeG G, 2008b, “Misdirection in magic: Implications for the relationship between eye gaze and attention”Visual Cognition16391–405
5.
LevinD TSimonsD J, 1997“Failure to detect changes to attended objects in motion pictures”Psychonomic Bulletin & Review4501–506
6.
MackARockI, 1998Inattentional Blindness (Cambridge, MA: MIT Press)
7.
MemmertD, 2006“The effects of eye movements, age, and expertise on inattentional blindness”Consciousness and Cognition15620–627
8.
MitalP KSmithT JHillR LHendersonJ M, 2011“Clustering of gaze during dynamic scene viewing is predicted by motion”Cognitive Computation35–24
9.
SimonsD JChabrisC F, 1999“Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events”Perception281059–1074
10.
SimonsD JLevinD T, 1998“Failure to detect changes to people during a real-world interaction”Psychonomic Bulletin & Review5644–649
11.
TrieschJBallardD HHayhoeM MSullivanB T, 2003“What you see is what you need”Journal of Vision3(1):9
