Hidden in Plain Foraging: Behavioral signatures of Inattentional Blindness in Visual Foraging.

This project examines whether inattentional blindness (IB) can be measured through objective behavioral changes rather than relying solely on subjective self-reports. Inattentional blindness refers to the failure to notice unexpected stimuli while engaged in a demanding task (Mack & Rock, 1998). Traditionally, IB is assessed through retrospective verbal reports, which may not fully capture subtle or delayed detection processes. This study proposes a behavioral alternative within a Hybrid Foraging paradigm. Participants perform a visual foraging task in which they search for either two or five target categories (low vs. high working memory load) to accumulate points. Midway through the task, an unexpected “bubble thought” stimulus informs them that a previously irrelevant distractor has become a high-value “bonus” item. If participants detect and integrate this new information, they should adapt their search strategy and begin collecting these bonus items. This behavioral shift serves as the primary objective indicator of detection. Post-task recall and recognition measures are also collected to compare objective behavioral detection with subjective awareness. The study has three main goals: (1) to validate whether behavioral change can serve as a reliable measure of IB, (2) to examine the time-course of detection by measuring latency between stimulus appearance and strategy shift, and (3) to test how working memory load and individual attentional abilities influence detection rates and timing. We expect that behavioral and subjective measures will show strong convergence, supporting the validity of the objective metric. Additionally, manipulating cognitive load will clarify how attentional demands shape the likelihood of noticing unexpected events. Overall, the project aims to provide a more precise and ecologically grounded way to measure inattentional blindness within dynamic visual search contexts.