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A Method for Investigating Change Blindness in Pigeons (Columba Livia)
Published on: September 7, 2018
Change blindness and the primacy of object appearance
Geoff G Cole1, Simon P Liversedge
1Department of Psychology, Science Park, University of Durham, South Road, Durham DH1 3LE, England. g.g.cole@durham.ac.uk
Psychonomic Bulletin & Review
|January 5, 2007
Summary
The visual system prioritizes new object appearances. Object onsets are less susceptible to change blindness than looming or receding objects, indicating a special status for new visual events.
Area of Science:
- Cognitive Psychology
- Neuroscience
- Visual Perception
Background:
- Existing research suggests visual attention is highly sensitive to new object onsets.
- This is supported by visual search studies where onsets capture attention.
- However, recent studies challenge this, showing looming objects also capture attention.
Purpose of the Study:
- To investigate if object onset has processing priority over looming.
- To compare the attentional capture of object onsets versus looming objects.
Main Methods:
- Two experiments using a change detection task.
- Participants observed displays where objects either loomed, receded, or appeared as new.
- Change blindness susceptibility was measured.
Main Results:
- Looming objects were more resistant to change blindness than receding objects.
- New object onsets were significantly less susceptible to change blindness than both looming and receding objects.
Conclusions:
- Object onsets receive processing priority in the visual system.
- The visual system demonstrates heightened sensitivity to the appearance of novel objects over other dynamic visual events.
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