Inattentional Blindness

Abstract

Arien Mack and Irvin Rock make the radical claim that there is no conscious perception of the visual world without attention to it. Many people believe that merely by opening their eyes, they see everything in their field of view; in fact, a line of psychological research has been taken as evidence of the existence of so-called preattentional perception. In Inattentional Blindness, Arien Mack and Irvin Rock make the radical claim that there is no such thing—that there is no conscious perception of the visual world without attention to it. The authors present a narrative chronicle of their research. Thus, the reader follows the trail that led to the final conclusions, learning why initial hypotheses and explanations were discarded or revised, and how new questions arose along the way. The phenomenon of inattentional blindness has theoretical importance for cognitive psychologists studying perception, attention, and consciousness, as well as for philosophers and neuroscientists interested in the problem of consciousness. Bradford Books imprint

Attentional resources in hypnotic responding

“…In addition, recall, pain perception, and visual perception can be inhibited by inattention (e.g., Mack & Rock, 1998;McCaul & Malott, 1984). Although cognitive load might divert attention from the task of producing amnesia or analgesia, it might also contribute to these responses indirectly, by inhibiting recall and pain perception.…”

Social Constructivism, Mental Models, and Problems of Obedience

“…Scholars in the field of perceptual psychology explain that we develop a blindness to which we are not paying attention (Mack and Rock, 1998;Simons and Levin, 2003). If we are told to count the number of basketball passes during a particular clip, we obey the authority figure and begin to count.…”

Foresight—Are we looking in the right direction?

“…Vision thus is an active, two-way process-what flows is not light, but attention. Looking is not sufficient: we may see something, but if we fail to notice, we are essentially blind, as there is 'no conscious perception without attention' [53].…”