Motion silences awareness of visual change

Jordan W. Suchow, George A. Alvarez

Research output: Contribution to journalArticlepeer-review

90 Scopus citations

Abstract

Loud bangs, bright flashes, and intense shocks capture attention, but other changes - even those of similar magnitude - can go unnoticed. Demonstrations of change blindness have shown that observers fail to detect substantial alterations to a scene when distracted by an irrelevant flash, or when the alterations happen gradually [1-5]. Here, we show that objects changing in hue, luminance, size, or shape appear to stop changing when they move. This motion-induced failure to detect change, silencing, persists even though the observer attends to the objects, knows that they are changing, and can make veridical judgments about their current state. Silencing demonstrates the tight coupling of motion and object appearance.

Original languageEnglish
Pages (from-to)140-143
Number of pages4
JournalCurrent Biology
Volume21
Issue number2
DOIs
StatePublished - 25 Jan 2011

Fingerprint

Dive into the research topics of 'Motion silences awareness of visual change'. Together they form a unique fingerprint.

Cite this