Change blindness
≈ 2 MIN · 3 SCENES · Perception
What this is about
When something changes in view, its motion normally gives it away. Slip a brief grey moment between two frames, though, and it swallows exactly that signal — even large changes turn invisible until attention happens to land on them.
Rensink, O’Regan and Clark turned this into the flicker task in 1997: image, blank, changed image, blank, in a loop. For inconspicuous changes, viewers in the original often needed over ten seconds and dozens of alternations — not because the eyes fail, but because seeing without attention retains nothing.
How it runs
- A desk scene of folders, cards and stamps flickers in alternation with a blank.
- Exactly ONE object changes (colour, place, or it is missing).
- Click the object as soon as you find it — three scenes, the clock runs per scene.
Runs entirely in your browser — nothing is transmitted or stored.
You can stop the run at any time.
Your finding
What it means
Limits of this experiment
- Three scenes, one change type each — the original varied systematically.
- Screen size decides how much scene fits your field of view.
- Knowing the paradigm makes search more strategic — times drop with practice.