Social Cognition: Attention, Priming, and Schemas

Understanding Social Cognition: Attention, Priming, and Schemas

Observational Blindness: Change and Inattentional Blindness

• The Social Cognitive Trick Video:

  • An experiment where an actor switches with another person mid-conversation with unsuspecting individuals.

  • Observation: Most people do not notice the change.

  • Vocab Terms:

    • Change Blindness: Missing something that is changing in front of you.

    • Inattentional Blindness: A broader category including change blindness, referring to missing things that aren't changing, but were never attended to.

  • **Why people *don't* notice:

    • Cognitive Load/Focus: Participants were primarily focused on a map and giving directions, consuming their cognitive resources.

    • Lack of Emphasis: No emphasis was placed on the person's appearance (e.g., hair), so attention was not directed there.

  • Why one person did notice:

    • Enthusiasm and Intentionality: He was very enthusiastic, made eye contact, and showed intentionality in his interaction.

    • Possible Interest/Schema: A theory suggested he might have noticed because the new person was bald, and if he himself was bald, hair might be something he pays more attention to (a personal schema).

    • External Interruption: A siren briefly interrupted his train of thought, possibly redirecting his attention back to the person, allowing him to reassess the situation.

    • Deeper Processing: He offered to walk with the person, indicating a higher level of assessment and judgment about the individual, implying he was paying more attention and processing the person's identity more deeply than others.

  • Significance: It highlights how easily we overlook