The Invisible 800-pound Gorilla: Expertise Can Increase Inattentional Blindness

Overview

Journal Cogn Res Princ Implic

Specialty Psychology

Date 2023 May 29

PMID 37247030

Authors

Samuel G Robson

Jason M Tangen

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

People can fail to notice objects and events in their visual environment when their attention is engaged elsewhere. This phenomenon is known as inattentional blindness, and its consequences can be costly for important real-world decisions. However, not noticing certain visual information could also signal expertise in a domain. In this study, we compared professional fingerprint analysts and novices on a fingerprint matching task in which we covertly placed an image of a gorilla into one of the prints. This gorilla was either small, or large, but always embedded in a way that made it largely irrelevant to the primary task. We found that analysts were more likely than the novices to miss the large gorilla. We interpret this finding not as a flaw in how these experts make decisions, but most likely an expression of their expertise; instead of processing more information they filter out irrelevant information and constrain their attention to what is important.

References

Simons D, Schlosser M . Inattentional blindness for a gun during a simulated police vehicle stop. Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2017; 2(1):37. PMC: 5605606. DOI: 10.1186/s41235-017-0074-3. View

Thompson M, Tangen J . The nature of expertise in fingerprint matching: experts can do a lot with a little. PLoS One. 2014; 9(12):e114759. PMC: 4269392. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0114759. View

Ekelund M, Fernsund H, Karlsson S, Mac Giolla E . Does Expertise Reduce Rates of Inattentional Blindness? A Meta-Analysis. Perception. 2022; 51(2):131-147. PMC: 8813586. DOI: 10.1177/03010066211072466. View

Drew T, Vo M, Wolfe J . The invisible gorilla strikes again: sustained inattentional blindness in expert observers. Psychol Sci. 2013; 24(9):1848-53. PMC: 3964612. DOI: 10.1177/0956797613479386. View

Busey T, Vanderkolk J . Behavioral and electrophysiological evidence for configural processing in fingerprint experts. Vision Res. 2004; 45(4):431-48. DOI: 10.1016/j.visres.2004.08.021. View

Memmert D . The effects of eye movements, age, and expertise on inattentional blindness. Conscious Cogn. 2006; 15(3):620-7. DOI: 10.1016/j.concog.2006.01.001. View

Tangen J, Thompson M, McCarthy D . Identifying fingerprint expertise. Psychol Sci. 2011; 22(8):995-7. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611414729. View

Most S, Scholl B, Clifford E, Simons D . What you see is what you set: sustained inattentional blindness and the capture of awareness. Psychol Rev. 2005; 112(1):217-42. DOI: 10.1037/0033-295X.112.1.217. View

Busey T, Heise N, Hicklin R, Ulery B, Buscaglia J . Characterizing missed identifications and errors in latent fingerprint comparisons using eye-tracking data. PLoS One. 2021; 16(5):e0251674. PMC: 8143401. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0251674. View

10.

Busey T, Parada F . The nature of expertise in fingerprint examiners. Psychon Bull Rev. 2010; 17(2):155-60. DOI: 10.3758/PBR.17.2.155. View

11.

Diamond R, Carey S . Why faces are and are not special: an effect of expertise. J Exp Psychol Gen. 1986; 115(2):107-17. DOI: 10.1037//0096-3445.115.2.107. View

12.

Kellman P, Garrigan P . Perceptual learning and human expertise. Phys Life Rev. 2010; 6(2):53-84. PMC: 6198797. DOI: 10.1016/j.plrev.2008.12.001. View

13.

Most S, Simons D, Scholl B, Jimenez R, Clifford E, Chabris C . How not to be seen: the contribution of similarity and selective ignoring to sustained inattentional blindness. Psychol Sci. 2001; 12(1):9-17. DOI: 10.1111/1467-9280.00303. View

14.

Roads B, Mozer M, Busey T . Using Highlighting to Train Attentional Expertise. PLoS One. 2016; 11(1):e0146266. PMC: 4706445. DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0146266. View

15.

Robson S, Tangen J, Searston R . The effect of expertise, target usefulness and image structure on visual search. Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2021; 6(1):16. PMC: 7977019. DOI: 10.1186/s41235-021-00282-5. View

16.

Most S . Setting sights higher: category-level attentional set modulates sustained inattentional blindness. Psychol Res. 2011; 77(2):139-46. DOI: 10.1007/s00426-011-0379-7. View

17.

Searston R, Tangen J . The style of a stranger: Identification expertise generalizes to coarser level categories. Psychon Bull Rev. 2016; 24(4):1324-1329. DOI: 10.3758/s13423-016-1211-6. View

18.

Pammer K, Blink C . Attentional differences in driving judgments for country and city scenes: Semantic congruency in inattentional blindness. Accid Anal Prev. 2012; 50:955-63. DOI: 10.1016/j.aap.2012.07.026. View

19.

Vogelsang M, Palmeri T, Busey T . Holistic processing of fingerprints by expert forensic examiners. Cogn Res Princ Implic. 2017; 2(1):15. PMC: 5318483. DOI: 10.1186/s41235-017-0051-x. View

20.

Fougnie D, Marois R . Executive working memory load induces inattentional blindness. Psychon Bull Rev. 2007; 14(1):142-7. DOI: 10.3758/bf03194041. View