Change Blindness: Past, Present, and Future
Daniel J. Simons, University of Illinois, Champaign, IL, USA.
Ronald A. Rensink, University of British Columbia, Vancouver, BC, Canada.

Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 9: 16-20. 2005.   [pdf]

Abstract

Change blindness is the striking failure to perceive visual changes to displays, changes that are sufficiently large that they normally would be noticed. Over the past decade this phenomenon has increasingly contributed to our understanding of attention, perception, and even consciousness (e.g., see Rensink, 2002a; Simons, 2000). The surprising extent of change blindness explains its broad appeal, but its counterintuitive nature can engender confusion about the legitimacy of the inferences that can follow from it. We argue that some of the more extreme claims must be dismissed. We also argue that there still exists a core set of legitimate inferences that provide valuable information about the nature of visual processing and that can serve as a springboard for new research.


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