Cognitive Psychology 4th Edition by Bruce Goldstein

Exercise 2

Find someone who is willing to participate in a brief "observation exercise." Cover a picture (preferably one that contains a number of objects or details) with a piece of paper, and tell the person that you are going to uncover the picture and that their task is to report everything that they see. Then u ncover the picture very briefly (less than a second), and have the person write down, or tell you, what they saw. Then repeat this procedure, increasing the exposure of the picture to a few seconds, so the person can direct his or her attention to different parts of the picture. Perhaps try this a third time, allowing even more time to observe the picture. From the person's responses, what can you conclude about the role of attention in determining what people are aware of in their environment?