Perceptual Load Effect On Target Detection In Banner Blindness

Perceptual load theory claims that the processing of task-irrelevant information can be predicted by the level of perceptual load. If a particular task places a high demand on attention, the task-irrelevant stimuli processing can be prevented. That means that in high load condition the subjects are more likely to ignore distractors, while in low load task-relevant and task-irrelevant information is processed simultaneously. Though several studies showed that perceptual load can play a crucial role in inattentional blindness phenomenon, there is a lack of applied researches conducted on real-life tasks. Current study aimed implement load theory to a real-life task and to describe the effect it has on banner blindness, that has common grounds with inattentional blindness. Banner blindness is a phenomenon in usability studies which shows that subjects do not notice banners on the webpage despite their saliency. The study represents an important application of load theory to real-world behavior of Internet users. Participants were divided into low-load and high-load groups (that differed in number of presented stimuli) and asked go online shopping. At the critical trail, a banner appeared. The subjects under high load condition were expected to notice the banner less often, then under low load. The hypothesis was not supported. However, a tendency towards more reports about the banner’s presence can be seen in the low load group. We assume that if there are enough people who noticed the banner, we will be able to detect the effect of cognitive load on banner blindness.