In the context of AP Psychology, what is change blindness?

• A. A condition in which a person is unable to recognize familiar faces, also known as prosopagnosia.
• B. A disorder characterized by difficulty in distinguishing between different colors.
• C. A type of memory loss where individuals cannot recall events that occurred before a traumatic incident.
• D. A phenomenon where individuals fail to notice significant changes in their visual environment after a brief interruption or distraction.

Answer: (D)

Verified step by step guidance

1. Understand that change blindness is a concept in cognitive psychology related to visual perception and attention.
2. Recognize that change blindness occurs when a person does not notice a change in a visual stimulus, especially when the change happens during a brief interruption or distraction.
3. Differentiate change blindness from other conditions such as prosopagnosia (face blindness), color blindness, or amnesia, which involve different cognitive or perceptual deficits.
4. Note that change blindness demonstrates how our attention is selective and that we do not always perceive every detail in our environment.
5. Summarize that change blindness is the failure to detect significant changes in a visual scene, highlighting the limits of human attention and perception.