14:30 - 16:00
Wed-Main hall - Z2b-Poster 3--88
Wed-Poster 3
Room: Main hall - Z2b
Can the serial reaction time task reduce change blindness?
Wed-Main hall - Z2b-Poster 3-8807
Presented by: Anja Kühnel
Anja Kühnel
Medical School Berlin MSB GmbH
Change Blindness is the relativ inability to detect changes when they are masked by a global transient (Simons, 2000). Many studies found that change blindness can be reduced if attention can be allocated to the position of the change (Hollingworth, Schrock, et al., 2001). One possibility to draw attention to the location of the change is to enable participants to anticipate the location of the upcoming change. A paradigm which allows participants to prepare for the next reaction is the serial reaction task (SRT, Nissen & Bullemer, 1987). In the SRT participants are presented with successive stimuli and have to react to them. Unbeknownst to the participants the stimuli are following a sequence. Classically, this sequence will be learned by the participants implicitly and/or explicitly. If learned, the sequential presentation allows to prepare for the next stimulus and thus faster reactions and fewer errors. It should therefore be possible to combine the SRT with change blindness paradigm to increase change detection. To this end, the change positions in the present change blindness paradigm will follow a sequence. Two experimental groups will participate. One group in a classic one shot flicker paradigm with a 250ms blank between pre- and post-change scene (change blindness group) and one group with a 10ms blank to check if learning can take place in the experimental design at all (control group). If the change position sequence is learned, participants should be able to allocate attention to the next change position and thus decrease change blindness.
Keywords: implicit learning, serial reaction time task, change blindness, attention