What phenomenon occurs when individuals fail to notice visual changes when attention is not directed at the change?

The phenomenon of change blindness refers to the inability of individuals to detect changes in a visual scene when their attention is not specifically focused on those changes. This can happen, particularly in dynamic environments where changes occur gradually or during interruptions, such as a brief distraction or a visual disruption.

Change blindness demonstrates the limits of our visual perception and highlights the role of attention in processing visual information. For example, if a person is watching a film and fails to notice that a character's clothing has changed between scenes, this is an instance of change blindness at work.

This phenomenon emphasizes that even though we seem to perceive our environment fully, our attention is selective, and when it is misdirected or divided, we may completely overlook significant changes in our visual field. Understanding change blindness sheds light on the complexities of how we process visual information and the necessity of focused attention for accurate perception.

In contrast, inattentional deafness relates to auditory stimuli and how distractions can lead to missing sounds, distractor stimuli speak to external factors that divert attention, and preattentive processing refers to the automatic detection of certain features in the environment before focused attention is applied. Each of these concepts pertains to attention and perception, but they address different aspects of how we process