Failure to see an object we are looking at directly because our attention is directed elsewhere is called ___.

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The question presents a definition: 'Failure to see an object we are looking at directly because our attention is directed elsewhere.' This asks you to identify the term for this phenomenon.
First, consider what the description implies about attention and perception. It highlights that our sensory input is intact and the object is in our line of sight, yet we miss it because our cognitive resources are allocated elsewhere. This points to a failure of conscious awareness due to selective attention rather than a failure of the visual system itself.
A common concept that captures this idea is inattentional blindness: when attention is focused on a demanding task or another stimulus, an obvious object or event that is in plain view goes unnoticed. This contrasts with phenomena like change blindness, which involves failing to notice changes to an object or scene over time, not merely missing a visible object while attention is elsewhere.
If you were given alternative options, you would assess each against this core idea:
- An option suggesting a general lapse in perception without referencing attention would be inaccurate, because inattentional blindness specifically ties the miss to where attention is directed.
- An option describing a failure to notice changes over time would be change blindness, which is a related but distinct phenomenon.
- An option claiming that perception fails due to a lack of visual acuity would describe a sensory impairment, not a cognitive attention-based failure.
- An option restricting the phenomenon to internal states or motivations would mischaracterize the perceptual nature of inattentional blindness.
In summary, the described failure aligns with the concept where attention to one task causes failure to notice a visible object in the field of view, which is classically labeled as inattentional blindness.

SP25: PSYC-135 Sec 80 - Cognition Exam 1 Chapter 1 2 and 3

Failure to see an object we are looking at directly because our attention is directed elsewhere is called ___.

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