Comments on: Change Blindness

By: Weird minds think alike « Entitled to an Opinion

Weird minds think alike « Entitled to an Opinion — Wed, 23 Dec 2009 18:24:11 +0000

[...] site and hope the author didn’t die or something. He’d usually be the one to highlight this sort of thing. [...]

By: Rich

Rich — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:25:09 +0000

This explains a lot about both magic and the Obama administration…

By: Jeff

Jeff — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 17:00:26 +0000

I agree with John that if the person behind the counter was female, more people would have caught it. Men are always evaluating a woman’s desirability and whether they could get her into bed if they had a chance. A change in women would have altered both parts of that equation in some way and thus been noticeable since it would force a recalculation.

By: random guy

random guy — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 03:35:40 +0000

I saw another video like this where the set up is that the video is going to show you a magic trick with cards. However during the cuts in the video the tablecloth is changed, the back drop is changed, the shirts of both people in the video was changed and a couple of the decorations on the table were changed out, even the deck of cards were changed out to a different deck with new backs on the cards.

At the end of the video they explained change blindness and how by focusing on the magic trick you didn’t notice that everything else in the video, even the changing color of the deck.

By: johnl

johnl — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 02:32:47 +0000

I bet if it had been a woman behind the desk, people would have noticed the swap more often.

By: Dave Krueger

Dave Krueger — Tue, 22 Dec 2009 00:27:18 +0000

They could have done that with me right out in the open and I wouldn’t have noticed it. If you are ever the vitcim of a crime, I am the last person on the planet you would want as an eyewitness.

By: Fascist Nation

Fascist Nation — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 22:16:16 +0000

I think I saw this on Candid Camera. Only it was a lot more funny. :-)

By: Ride Fast

Ride Fast — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 18:24:24 +0000

Plus there is the problem of memories changing. It’s not difficult to subtly plant a false or new memory by simply stating something about the event in front of an eyewitness. Mentioning the color of an article of clothing, for example, can influence the eyewitness to actually think they saw that color of pants.

Or in the drive by shooting example, asking a witness if they saw the shooter reload the machine-gun and continue to fire? Suddenly the witness remembers a machine-gun being used.

By: MDGuy

MDGuy — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 17:12:45 +0000

It is interesting to think about this in the context of eyewitness testimony. If you were in on the switcheroo in the psych experiment, you'd notice it immediately. If you knew a drive-by shooting was going to happen (and for the sake of the hypothetical, say you were in a safe place to observe from), you could probably be paying attention and might make a fairly decent eye-witness. The thing is most crimes don't happen when people are paying attention and I'd guess that a fair number of them happen pretty fast before anyone can really differentiate who's who. For example in the drive-by scenario people would be scrambling for cover instead of making a concerted effort to identify and remember faces or other distinguishing features of the attackers. Even paying attention doesn't ensure correct identification. See Picking Cotton .

By: Brent

Brent — Mon, 21 Dec 2009 16:54:47 +0000

I’ll be there’s a higher rate a females who notice the change than men. My own sister will remember all sorts of details when describing something that happened to the both of us. Usually these are mundane and irrelevant details that I wouldn’t have wasted my time paying attention to, but for some reason she notices. I’ve also had girlfriends who did the same thing.

This is just a guess though. I could be wrong.