Change Blindness in Response to Facial Versus Object Stimuli

Publication Date

2026

College

College of Sciences & Mathematics

Department

Psychological Science, Department of

Presentation Type

Article

Summary

Previous research suggests that people are more inclined to remember human faces over other stimuli (D’Argembeau & Van der Linden, 2011) due to the emotional connection they evoke (Kapsetaki & Zeki, 2022). Research also suggests that change blindness occurs due to cognitive shortcuts from top-down processing (Schankin et al., 2017). Previous research has established how people process facial stimuli compared to other stimuli, as well as the causes of change blindness. However, this study is connecting these concepts by looking at factors that could influence the occurrence of change blindness, focusing on the type of stimuli as the main factor. This study aims to determine if change blindness varies depending on whether the changing stimuli are facial or object stimuli. This study has an experimental design, using a sample of Belmont undergraduate students. Participants will view images with varying stimuli using a virtual reality headset and will be subsequently tested for reaction time and accuracy. We expect that participants will react more quickly and accurately to changing facial stimuli than to changing object stimuli. This study could help explain whether the brain prioritizes socially or emotionally meaningful stimuli like faces over objects, showing how attention is allocated and how humans prioritize critical information in their environment.

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