We often experience difficulties in finding changes that are made to visual scenes. Studies on visual cognition conducted since the end of the 20th century have focused on this phenomenon, which is known as change blindness, although its mechanisms remain largely unclear. In this study, the accuracy of visual memory for images in change blindness was examined. Participants were presented with images of six line-drawn objects. In each trial, the participants continuously watched two different images that differed by a single component. The images were separated by a black masking image that was inserted between the images. The images were presented for three presentation times: 240 ms, 480 ms, or 960 ms. Results indicated that in the 240 ms the 240 ms condition, the participants could distinguish the first and second images from non-presented distracters, even when they could not detect any changes, whereas they could distinguish only the second image from non-presented distracters in the other conditions. These results indicate that change blindness occurred under the shorter presentation times because participants could not correctly compare the images, even though they had representations of both images. Moreover, the second image might overwrite the representations of the first image under longer presentation conditions. These findings suggest that the cause of change blindness might differ according to the image exposure time.

特集 : 伊東裕司教授 退職記念号
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