If a sudden anomaly occurs on a display but attention is elsewhere, this is an example of which phenomenon?

• A. Change blindness
• B. Perception
• C. Inattentional blindness
• D. Sensation

Answer: (C)

Inattentional blindness occurs when your attention is focused on something else, so you fail to notice an unexpected stimulus that appears in plain sight. In the scenario, a sudden anomaly shows up on the display, but your attention is elsewhere, so the anomaly goes unnoticed. This differs from change blindness, which is about missing changes in a scene when you’re not focusing on the right area; here the stimulus is new rather than a change you failed to detect. It also sits at a higher level than sensation (raw sensory input) or perception (interpreting that input): the lapse happens because attention isn’t allocated to the new event, so it doesn’t reach conscious awareness.