Surprise capture and inattentional blindness.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Visual Perception

Background:

• Inattentional blindness (IB) is the failure to perceive unexpected objects.
• Previous research identified target similarity and perceptual saliency as factors reducing IB.

Purpose of the Study:

• To investigate if expectancy congruence influences inattentional blindness.
• To determine if expectancy-discrepant novel objects are more likely to be noticed.

Main Methods:

• Three experiments were conducted using a surprise presentation procedure.
• Perceptual saliency was controlled by limiting displays to two objects.
• Expectancy congruence, target similarity, and degree of discrepancy were manipulated.

Main Results:

• Expectancy-discrepant novel features were noticed even when dissimilar to the target.
• Both expectancy discrepancy and target feature matching can prioritize an object.
• The degree of expectancy discrepancy correlated with the prevention of IB.

Conclusions:

• Inattentional blindness is prevented by two key factors: matching the target set and expectancy discrepancy.
• A revised model incorporating expectancy congruence is proposed for inattentional blindness.