Final answer:
Inattentional blindness is a psychological phenomenon where an individual fails to perceive an unexpected stimulus in plain sight due to the focus of attention on another task. This was shown in studies by Simons and Chabris where participants didn't notice a gorilla figure while counting basketball passes, and another where a red cross was missed on screen. It indicates how our attention can selectively filter out stimuli that do not seem relevant to the task at hand.
Step-by-step explanation:
Failing to see visible objects when our attention is directed elsewhere in our environment is an example of inattentional blindness. This phenomenon was compellingly illustrated in a study by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris where participants watching a basketball game were tasked to count the passes made by one team and failed to notice a gorilla-suited figure walking among the players. Inattentional blindness is when we fail to notice fully visible, but unexpected objects because our focus is consumed by another task, leading our brains to prioritize and process only that specific information.
Similarly, in another experiment involving moving images on a screen, subjects focused on objects of a specific color and missed the unexpected appearance of a red cross, demonstrating how selective our attention can be. Attention is a critical cognitive process that determines what information we perceive and process from our surroundings. Our brains use heuristics or mental shortcuts, which can lead to inattentional blindness, especially when we are engaged in complex and attention-demanding tasks.