title: Undetected changes in visible stimuli influence subsequent decisions.
abstract: Change blindness-our inability to detect changes in a stimulus-occurs even when the change takes place gradually, without any disruption [Simons, D. J., Franconeri, S. L., & Reimer, R. L. (2000). Change blindness in the absence of a visual disruption. Perception, 29(10), 1143-1154]. Such gradual changes are more difficult to detect than changes that involve a disruption. Using this method, David et al. [David, E., Laloyaux, C., Devue, C., & Cleeremans, A. (in press). Change blindness to gradual changes in facial expressions. Psychologica Belgica] recently showed substantial blindness to changes that involve facial expressions of emotion. In this experiment, we show that people who failed to detect any change in the displays were (1) nevertheless influenced by the changing information in subsequent recognition decisions about which facial expression they had seen, and (2) that their confidence in their decisions was lower after exposure to changing vs. static displays. The findings therefore support the notion that undetected changes that occur in highly salient stimuli may be causally efficacious and influence subsequent behavior. Implications concerning the nature of the representations associated with undetected changes are discussed.
authors: Cognitive Science Research Unit, Université Libre de Bruxelles CP 191, Av. F.-D. Roosevelt, 50, 1050 Bruxelles, Belgium. claloyau@ulb.ac.be
authors: Cédric
authors: C
authors: Laloyaux
authors: Christel
authors: C
authors: Devue
authors: Stéphane
authors: S
authors: Doyen
authors: Elodie
authors: E
authors: David
authors: Axel
authors: A
authors: Cleeremans
mesh_terms: D003657:Decision Making; D005149:Facial Expression; D006801:Humans; D021641:Recognition, Psychology; D017603:Signal Detection, Psychological; D014796:Visual Perception