Exacerbating Perceptual Blindness in an Era of Continual Stimulation From Social Media The Harvard community has made this article openly available. Please share how this access benefits you. Your story matters Citable link http://nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:37799768 Terms of Use This article was downloaded from Harvard University’s DASH repository, and is made available under the terms and conditions applicable to Other Posted Material, as set forth at http:// nrs.harvard.edu/urn-3:HUL.InstRepos:dash.current.terms-of- use#LAA Exacerbating Perceptual Blindness in an Era of Continual Stimulation from Social Media April I. Gardner A Thesis in the Field of Biology for the Degree of Master of Liberal Arts in Extension Studies Harvard University May 2018 © 2018 April I. Gardner Abstract Perceptual, or inattentional, blindness is the failure to notice a fully visible but unexpected object because attention was engaged on another task, event, or object. This study aims to answer the role of social media in people's lives: broadly, what is its role in influencing attention, and specifically, does spending time on it affect inattentional blindness? Through a series of self-response surveys, we aim to determine what people are processing visually, particularly after spending time on social media, which is rich with pictures, stories, news, and links--all of which, together, can tax cognitive resources. Participants in this study were recruited online using Mechanical Turk to target individuals who used social media. A self-report questionnaire was used to capture information about the participants’ age, gender, social media usage, and their preferred networks. To determine implicit cognition, participants were asked to perform a specific task by viewing a video, which also contains unexpected stimuli. At the conclusion of the video, they were asked to name any unexpected stimuli that also appeared, to determine their level of inattentional blindness. Findings provide initial evidence that exposure to social media exacerbates inattentional blindness. This study also begins to answer a series of follow-up questions. For instance, now that people are living increasingly more hours on a social media paradigm, how are people's ability to focus getting affected, if at all? And if it is being affected, what's good or bad about that shift? Dedication This thesis is dedicated to the many people who are affected by inattentional blindness, every day. iv Acknowledgments Many thanks to Dr. Fiery Cushman, Dr. James Morris, Chuck Houston, and Harvard University for their kindness, support, and invaluable assistance with this thesis. v Table of Contents Dedication ......................................................................................................................... iv Acknowledgments............................................................................................................... v List of Tables ................................................................................................................... vii List of Figures ................................................................................................................. viii Chapter I Introduction ................................................................................................ 1 Definition of Terms .................................................................................... 4 The Question............................................................................................... 7 Alternative Hypotheses............................................................................... 8 Background of the Problem........................................................................ 9 Defining Attention ................................................................................... 14 Defining Inattentional Blindness...............................................................15 Defining Expectation ............................................................................... 16 Defining Conspicuity................................................................................ 17 Defining Capacity..................................................................................... 18 Defining Mental Workload and Task Interference................................... 19 Chapter II Materials and Methods ........................................................................... 20 Study Protocol: Variables........................................................................ 20 Study Protocol: Online Collection through MTurk................................. 20 Study Protocol: Participants..................................................................... 21 Study Protocol: Social Media Survey....................................................... 22 Study Protocol: Online Survey for Inattentional Blindness...................... 22 Chapter III Results ...................................................................................................... 26 vi Participant Performance Results: Age...................................................... 28 Participant Performance Results: Overall Inattentional Blindness........... 29 Participant Performance Results: Color and Motion................................ 29 Participant Performance Results: High Social Media Users..................... 30 Participant Performance Results: Social Media Use Overall................... 30 Chapter IV Discussion Overview................................................................................ 33 Inferences on Divided Attention in Social Media..................................... 33 Inferences on Unexpected Stimuli & Color.............................................. 37 Inferences on Overall Participant Performance........................................ 38 Future Directions ..................................................................................... 43 Follow Up Studies ................................................................................... 44 Conclusion ............................................................................................... 44 References ................................................................................................ 55 Appendix .................................................................................................. 46 vii List of Tables Table 1 Age of Participants .................................................................................. 21 Table 2 Gender of Participants ............................................................................. 22 Table 3 Model Fitting Information of Analysis I................................................... 26 Table 4 Parameter Estimates of Analysis I ……................................................... 26 Table 5 Model Fitting Information of Analysis II................................................. 27 Table 6 Parameter Estimates of Analysis II........................................................... 27 Table 7 Inattentional Blindness Test Performance by Age Range........................ 28 Table 8 Participant Reports on Inattentional Blindness Test................................. 28 Table 9 Participants Who Are High Social Media Users....................................... 35 Table 10 Participants: See the Gorilla and Guess the Number of Passes.................35 Table 11 Participants: See No Gorilla; Guess the Number of Passes…...................36 Table 12 Participants: See No Gorilla; Guess Incorrect Number of Passes.............36 Table 13 Participants: See the Gorilla and Guess the Number of Passes.................36 Table 14 Participant Facebook Use......................................................................... 44 Table 15 Social Media Responses .......................................................................... 48 Table 16 Cognitive Failures Questionnaire (CFQ).................................................. 52 Table 17 CFQ Participant Average Scores by Question.......................................... 53 viii List of Figures Figure 1 Process of Social Media Usage Effect on Inattentional Blindness............. 8 Figure 2 The Ponzo Illusion and Pattern-Matrix Experiments.............................. 10 Figure 3 Average Daily Time Spent on Social Media............................................ 13 Figure 4 Original Invisible Gorilla Video by Daniel Simons................................. 24 Figure 5 Daniel Simons Monkey Business Illusion Video View 1....................... 24 Figure 6 Daniel Simons Monkey Business Illusion Video View 2....................... 25 Figure 7 Social Network Usage: Top Application as Selected by Participants..... 31 Figure 8 Frequency that Participants Report Checking Their Social Media ........ 31 Figure 9 Devices that Participants Use Most to Check Their Social Media............31 Figure 10 Content Types That Participants Share Most on Social Media.................32 Figure 11 Twitter screen ……………...................................................................... 38 Figure 12 Facebook screen …………….................................................................. 38 Figure 13 Instagram screen …………….................................................................. 39 Figure 14 Snapchat screen …………….................................................................... 39 Figure 15: View 1 of Participant Survey Results....................................................... 46 Figure 16: View 2 of Participant Survey Results......................................................