@article{ref1,
title="Inattentional blindness for a gun during a simulated police vehicle stop",
journal="Cognitive research: principles and implications",
year="2017",
author="Simons, Daniel J. and Schlosser, Michael D.",
volume="2",
number="1",
pages="e37-e37",
abstract="People often fail to notice unexpected objects and events when they are focusing attention on something else. Most studies of this &quot;inattentional blindness&quot; use unexpected objects that are irrelevant to the primary task and to the participant (e.g., gorillas in basketball games or colored shapes in computerized tracking tasks). Although a few studies have examined noticing rates for personally relevant or task-relevant unexpected objects, few have done so in a real-world context with objects that represent a direct threat to the participant. In this study, police academy trainees (n = 100) and experienced police officers (n = 75) engaged in a simulated vehicle traffic stop in which they approached a vehicle to issue a warning or citation for running a stop sign. The driver was either passive and cooperative or agitated and hostile when complying with the officer's instructions. Overall, 58% of the trainees and 33% of the officers failed to notice a gun positioned in full view on the passenger dashboard. The driver's style of interaction had little effect on noticing rates for either group. People can experience inattentional blindness for a potentially dangerous object in a naturalistic real-world context, even when noticing that object would change how they perform their primary task and even when their training focuses on awareness of potential threats.<p /> <p>Language: en</p>",
language="en",
issn="2365-7464",
doi="10.1186/s41235-017-0074-3",
url="http://dx.doi.org/10.1186/s41235-017-0074-3"
}