In Study 1 we will use a crossmodal inattentional deafness task (visual task, auditory unexpected stimulus; MacDonald & Lavie, 2011) and 3 tasks measuring individual differences in working memory capacity. In Study 2 we will use a crossmodal inattentional blindness task (auditory task, visual unexpected stimulus) and the same 3 working memory tasks. We will also include questions assessing demographic information and knowledge about inattentional blindness / inattentional deafness. Below we describe all of the measures. **Inattentional Deafness Task Study 1** (Code enclosed) - Visual primary task, auditory unexpected stimulus (adapted from MacDonald & Lavie, 2011, high-load condition) - Uses the static-cross task from Mack & Rock (1998) - 10 easy practice trials - Task: Which arm of the cross is longer? - One arm has a standard length of 6° (randomly chosen horizontal or vertical) and the length of the other arm is adapted using a 3-1 threshold procedure (79% threshold; Levitt, 1971) - Trials: 1000 ms fixation cross in the middle of the screen; 200 ms cross, 500 ms black-and-white mask, answer screen reminding the participant which key to press for which answer - Participants wear headphones and hear white noise during each trial (during fixation, cross, and mask); they are told that the headphones and white noise will help them concentrate by blocking outside noise. - When the threshold of the visual cross task is determined, the no-attention trial is presented without interruption - The unexpected stimulus is a low-pitch pure tone (180Hz) which is presented for 200 ms in addition to the white noise during the presentation of the cross - In order to predict noticing rates from measures of working memory, it is necessary that some people notice the unexpected sound and other people miss it. We piloted 17 people to make sure that noticing rates were not at ceiling or floor, and we used the loudness settings from the last 14 participants of that piloting for the unexepected stimulus in this study. - For the critical trial, the difficulty of the cross task is the same for all participants (the mean threshold from over 300 participants who completed the same cross task in our previous studies.) - Questions: Did you notice anything in the last trial that wasn't there before? (yes/no); What did you notice that wasn't there before? (something visual, something acoustic), guess if you do not know; What did you hear that was different? (the noise was overall higher, the noise was overall lower, there was an additional short high tone, there was an additional short low tone), guess if you do not know - 3 normal cross-task trials - Divided attention trial - Full attention trial **Inattentional Blindness Task Study 2** (Code enclosed) - Auditory primary task, visual unexpected stimulus - 10 easy practice trials - Task: Did the tone go up in pitch or go down in pitch during presentation? - A 400-Hz pure tone (presented through headphones) either continuously rises or falls in pitch (randomly chosen if up or down); the magnitude of the change in frequency over the course of the presentation (and thus the difficulty of the judgment task) is adapted using a 3-1 threshold procedure (79% threshold; Levitt, 1971) - Trials: 1000 ms fixation cross in the middle of the screen; 200 ms tone, 500 ms white-noise mask, answer screen reminding the participant which key to press for which answer - Participants are asked to fixate a small fixation cross in the middle of the screen the whole time (participants are told that this is important to equate conditions between participants and avoid distractions); they are told that their eye-movements are being monitored via a webcam that is installed on top of the screen. - When the threshold of the auditory pitch task is determined, the no-attention trial is presented without interruption - The unexpected stimulus is a grey square (0.6°) that appears 2° from the middle of the fixation cross (below and slightly to the right) - In order to predict noticing rates from measures of working memory, it is necessary that some people notice the unexpected object and other people miss it. We piloted 30 people to make sure that noticing rates were not at ceiling or floor, and we used the brightness settings from the last 9 participants of that piloting for the unexpected stimulus in this study. - During the critical trial, the pitch task is the same for all participants (set to the mean threshold from the 30 participants who took part in a pilot study) - Questions: Did you notice anything in the last trial that wasn't there before? (yes/no); What did you notice that wasn't there before? (something visual, something acoustic), guess if you do not know; Where did the additional object appear in relation to the fixation cross? (top right, bottom right, bottom left, top left), guess if you do not know; Which shape did the additional object have? (rectangle, square, triangle, diamond, cross, x), guess if you do not know - 3 normal cross-task trials - Divided attention trial - Full attention trial **Aospan** - Automated Operation Span Task - Exactly as in Unsworth, Heitz, Schrock & Engle (2005) **2-Back-Identity** (Code enclosed) - Letters are presented centrally on the screen (500 ms + 2000 ms inter-stimulus interval) - 100 trials (25% targets) - Task: Press target button if letter matches the one 2 stimuli earlier. - Controlled for 1-Backs and 3-Backs between subjects (difficulty) **2-Back-Spatial** (Code enclosed) - Same as 2-Back-Identity, but not different letters presented centrally on the screen but circles presented at one of 8 positions (aranged equally-spaced on an imagenary circle with a 15° diameter) **General Questionnaire** - used questionnaire under "files" - Knowledge of the study, general knowledge about inattentional blindness / inattentional deafness, demographics, normal sight?, normal hearing?