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Would You See It? A Project about Inattentional Blindness

CSEF · 2014 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only)

Cailyn G. Bond · St. Gregory the Great Catholic School, San Diego, San Diego County

Overview

Objectives/Goals The initial goal is to demonstrate the occurrence of Inattentional Blindness. If Inattentional Blindness is demonstrated, then the objective is to determine if Inattentional Blindness occurs less to children than adults. Methods/Materials A video was created to try to demonstrate the existence of Inattentional Blindness. In the video, an actor in a dark blue T-shirt asks the viewer to keep track of the cup with the ball under it and begins moving the 3 cups. During the video, the actor's shirt changes from dark blue, to light blue and back to dark blue. A laptop was used to separately show the video to 80 viewers. Forty children and forty adults independently completed a survey after watching the video. Results 71 (89%) viewers did not notice the shirt color change. Though only 9 (11%) noticed the shirt color change, 45 (56%) correctly identified the cup with the ball under it. These results indicate that though the viewers paid sufficient attention or were focused on the cup and ball challenge, 36 viewers (80%) who correctly identified the cup did not notice the shirt color change. Thus, the results demonstrate the existence of Inattentional Blindness, which happens when our visual system is focused on one thing that allows us to not notice other things in our sight. Because 4 children and 5 adults noticed the shirt color change, or 36 children and 35 adults did not notice the shirt color change, the results indicate that there was not a measurable difference of Inattentional Blindness between children and adults. Conclusions/Discussion The video and test results accomplish the initial goal of demonstrating the existence of Inattentional Blindness. However, the data results did not support the hypothesis because children and adults tested similarly. Inattentional Blindness is probably not dependent of being a child or an adult, but influenced by other circumstances and the individual tested

Summary statement

The project is about whether the existence of Inattentional Blindness could be demonstrated and if so, whether being a child versus an adult influences the occurence of Inattentional Blindness.

Help received

My parents helped me make the video. My Mother drove me to others houses so I could complete more surveys. Four different teachers each helped with different aspects of the Project such as overall guidance, planning, data organization, grammar, outline and biography. Please see the Acknowledgment.

Competition history

  • CSEF 2014 Cognitive Science (Junior Division Only) · Entry J0704

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Source: California Science & Engineering Fair public projects

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