User:MaxxEvans/sandbox

Looking back through the talk page, it seems as though this article has not been updated in a while, and there is now more research to bolster some of the current information. Specifically, I was drawn to the "Possible Causes" subheading and the information here. Not only are there no concrete research examples to support the content, but there are almost no citations for such an extensive amount of text. I found a couple of articles that are very recent, most within the past year, and the research that was conducted could be helpful in expanding the "Possible Causes" section and provide more context. Just within the three articles listed below, researchers study the effects when variables such as working memory and expectations are manipulated. My goal would be to refine the subcategories within this particular section to ensure the content is up-to-date and also supported with proper citations. Including legitimate research examples will not only provide more context, but give readers a better sense that the content they are reading is valid. I recognize that there were example experiments listed in another section of the article, but finding research more specific to exploring causes will be beneficial, and there is the possibility of integrating the current experiments with my updates. Let me know what everyone thinks.

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Mental workload and working memory

Working memory also contributes to inattentional blindness. Cognitive psychologists have examined the relationship between working memory and inattention, but evidence is inconclusive. The rate of this phenomenon can be impacted by a number of factors. Researchers have found evidence for a number of components that may play a role. These include features of the object and the current task, where an individual's attention lies relative to the object, and mental workload as mentioned above. Researchers Kreitz, Furley, and Memmery in 2015, asserted that working memory capacity is not an indicator of susceptibility to inattentional blindness. Instead, it is a combination of what stimulus the attention is directed to as well as the individual's personal expectations. There are individual differences that can play a role, but some argue those disparities are separate from capacity for working memory. On the other hand, there are researchers who consider differences between individuals and their working memory capacity to be a stronger determinant of inattentional blindness. Seegmiller, Watson, and Strayer in 2011 for example, studied individual differences in working memory capacity and how that overall impacted their attention on a given task. They utilized the same Invisible Gorilla video Simons and Chabris did (as mentioned above), but they additionally had participants complete a mathematics test to measure their capacity. From their results, they were able to find a high correlation between an individual's working memory capacity and their susceptibility to inattentional blindness. Those who were calculated to have a lower capacity, more often experienced the blindness.

In a follow up study the same year, Kreitz and her team looked specifically at the cognitive abilities between individuals. Her team employed a variety of tasks, both static and dynamic, to compare the participants who had their cognitive capacity measured beforehand. Even though they included different tasks to test individuals, there was not a measurable relationship between the cognitive abilities of a participant and their attention performance. They did, however, find evidence to support the idea that noticing a certain stimuli was better in those demonstrating expertise in the task subject (referenced above). Overall, Kreitz concluded that cognitive/working memory capacity might not be an accurate measure for inattentional blindness. Instead, they determined that the rate of noticing might be both circumstantial and dependent on the requirements of the task.

There are also researchers who subscribe to the idea that working memory does not play a measurable role in attentional blindness. This is different from the study by Kreitz and her team finding that individual differences in cognitive abilities might not be relative to noticing rates. Bredemeier and Simons conducted two studies in 2012. The first involved identifying the location of letters as well as counting how many times a group of shapes touched one another. These served as spatial and attention tasks respectively. The second study utilized the same tasks as the previous, but included a verbal one. Participants had to solve math problems and then remember a particular letter that followed each equation. From their results, the two researchers questioned if there was a relationship between noticing a particular stimuli and memory workload. Instead of other factors contributing to the working memory of an individual's noticing, Bredemeier and Simons postulated that external variables establish the appearance of this relationship. Finally, the two researchers attempted to explain why studies were yielding conflicting results. The reason for why this research seems particularly inconclusive might be a result of disparities between the design of the actual research. Essentially, a variety of confounded variables might be prevalent across the studies when considering methodology and sampling processes. A more regulated, large-scale experiment could lead to more conclusive findings.