In 1992, Arien Mack and Irvin Rock, two researchers at MIT, coined the term inattentional blindness to describe the failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object. Seeing may seem like a conscious process, but the truth is, most of it is largely unconscious. Our senses are bombarded with so much information, sights, sounds, smells, etc., that our minds cannot process it all.
Source: https://ccmit.mit.edu/observation/ page 3
The video below will test how inattentional blindness works in your brain and show you some amazing Double Dutch jump rope skills as well!
Image Text: We're surrounded by multiple stimuli all the time. Attention is what filters some of them and processes them as perceptions - things we pay attention to. What happens to the stimuli that weren't selected for attention? We neither notice nor remember them. We are inattentionally blind to them. It's as if they never existed.I
mage Source: PreventiV Measures
You have learned that inattentional blindness happens when we don't notice something in our visual field because we are busy focusing on something else. Researchers believe the phenomenon is linked to our limited attentional abilities, but others suggest it might also be connected to memory. No matter the cause, it can have important real-world implications.
In the workplace, intentional blindness can contribute to accidents that affect safety and well-being. Safety observation is a proactive approach to prevent workplace incidents by identifying things such as potential hazards and condition (objects or wet spots blocking pathways) or situations involving at-risk behaviors (verbal or physical).
Some have suggested that expertise and experience might mitigate the effects of inattentional blindness, but research has found that expertise and experience appear to have no influence on whether or not people experience intentional blindness. Systematic observation of the work environment and activities are more effective in offsetting inattentional blindness
Though it is not possible to avoid all instances of inattentional blindness, it's important to remember this very natural occurrence—particularly when you are in a disagreement with someone about the full scope of a situation.
Sources:
Cherry, Kendra, MSEd. "Inattentional Blindness in Psychology." VeryWell Mind; "But did you see the gorilla?" Smithsonian Magazine
