Table of Contents
BEST IELTS Academic Reading Test 566
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST 566 – PASSAGE – 3
IELTS ACADEMIC READING TEST – 566
READING PASSAGE – 3
Blind to Change
How much of the world around you do you really see?
Picture the following and prepare to be amazed. You’re walking across a college campus when a stranger asks you for directions. While you’re talking to him, two men pass between you carrying a wooden door. You feel a moment’s irritation, but you carry on describing the route. When you’ve finished, you’re told you’ve just taken part in a psychology experiment.
“Did you notice anything after the two men passed with the door?” the stranger asks. “No,” you reply uneasily. He explains that the man who initially approached you walked off behind the door leaving him in his place. The first man now rejoins you. Comparing them, you notice that they are of different height and build and are dressed very differently.
Daniel Simons of Harvard University found that 50% of participants missed the substitution because of what is called change blindness. When considered with a large number of recent experimental results, this phenomenon suggests we see far less than we think we do. Rather than logging every detail of the visual scene, says Simons, we are actually highly selective. Our impression of seeing everything is just that. In fact, we extract a few details and rely on memory, or even our imagination, for the rest.
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Until recently, researchers thought that seeing involved making pictures in the brain. By building detailed internal representations of the world, and comparing them over time, we could spot any changes. Then in Consciousness Explained, the philosopher Daniel Dennett claimed that our brains hold only a few salient details about the world – and that is why we are able to operate successfully.
This phenomenon, known as change blindness, demonstrates that we don’t actually see as much of the world as we believe. While it might seem that our eyes capture every detail of a scene, our brains often only register a fraction of it, relying heavily on memory and inference to fill in the gaps. This selective attention has broader implications than we might expect, extending into many aspects of our daily lives.
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The simple act of driving. How many times have you missed a traffic signal change because your attention was momentarily diverted? This is not just a matter of distraction but a failure of our visual system to detect changes that do not seem immediately relevant. Researchers have even demonstrated that people can miss significant alterations in visual scenes, such as the appearance or disappearance of large objects, especially when their attention is focused elsewhere.
One famous experiment involved showing participants a video of a basketball game. They were instructed to count the number of passes made by one team. In the middle of the game, a man in a gorilla suit walked through the scene, yet many participants failed to notice him.
This experiment highlights how attention can be so narrowly focused on a specific task that we become blind to other, seemingly obvious, changes around us.
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Simons’ work on change blindness reveals how our brain constructs a coherent reality out of fragments. The brain’s ability to focus on what’s deemed important at the time can lead to significant gaps in our perception. We may believe that we are aware of everything happening around us, but in reality, we only see what we need to see at that moment.
The implications of change blindness extend beyond simple experiments. In real-world situations, such as witnessing a crime or driving, our selective attention can have serious consequences. Eyewitness testimonies, for instance, may be unreliable because individuals often do not register all the details of an event, especially if their attention was focused elsewhere. This raises important questions about how much we can trust our perceptions and memories.
Psychologist Christopher Chabris, who worked with Simons on the gorilla experiment, argues that understanding the limitations of our perception can help us better understand how the brain works. Rather than assuming that we see the world as it is, we must recognize that our experience of reality is shaped by our expectations, prior knowledge, and the limited capacity of our visual system.
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The phenomenon of change blindness underscores the complexity of human perception. Our brains, while powerful, are not perfect recording devices. They prioritize information, often missing or altering details in the process. This selective attention allows us to function in a complex world but also leaves us vulnerable to mistakes and misinterpretations. As we continue to explore the intricacies of perception, it becomes increasingly clear that what we see is not always what is there.
Questions 27-33
Choose the correct letter.
27. What is the main topic of the passage?
A) The impact of selective attention on driving
B) The limitations of human perception and attention
C) The history of psychological experiments
D) The effectiveness of memory in recognizing changes
28. What does Daniel Simons’ experiment demonstrate?
A) That people notice changes if they are significant
B) That people are always aware of their surroundings
C) That change blindness is a common phenomenon
D) That visual memory is accurate and reliable
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29. What was the result of the basketball game experiment?
A) Most participants noticed the man in the gorilla suit
B) Only a few participants counted the passes correctly
C) Many participants failed to notice the man in the gorilla suit
D) Participants were distracted by the game and missed all changes
30. What did participants fail to notice in Simons’ experiment?
A) The change in the direction they were walking
B) The substitution of the person asking for directions
C) The presence of a wooden door between them
D) The sudden disappearance of the stranger
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31. What does the phenomenon of change blindness suggest?
A) People can remember every detail they see
B) People often miss significant changes in their environment
C) Visual scenes are accurately captured by the brain
D) Our brains create detailed images of the world
32. What did the basketball game experiment reveal about attention?
A) Participants were more focused on the gorilla than the game
B) People are always aware of their surroundings
C) Attention to one task can lead to missing obvious changes
D) Visual distractions do not affect attention
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33. Why might eyewitness testimonies be unreliable, according to the passage?
A) People tend to exaggerate what they see
B) Visual memories are often incomplete and selective
C) Witnesses are easily distracted during important events
D) Everyone perceives reality in the same way
Questions 34-36
Do the following statements agree with the information given in Reading Passage 3?
Write:
TRUE if the statement agrees with the information
FALSE if the statement contradicts the information
NOT GIVEN if there is no information on this
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34. Researchers have always believed that our brains capture every detail of a visual scene.
35. Daniel Dennett’s theory suggested that our brains store detailed pictures of the world.
36. Eyewitness testimonies are completely reliable according to the passage.
Questions 37-40
Look at the following statements (Questions 37-40) and the list of researchers below.
37. Daniel Simons
38. Daniel Dennett
39. Christopher Chabris
40. John Grimes
A) Suggested that the brain holds only a few details at a time
B) Conducted the basketball game and gorilla suit experiment
C) Demonstrated change blindness during eye movements
D) Found that 50% of participants did not notice a change in a person
E) Showed that people notice all changes if they are significant
F) Studied the effects of long-term memory on perception
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ANSWERS
27. B
28. C
29. C
30. B
31. B
32. C
33. B
34. FALSE
35. FALSE
36. NOT GIVEN
37. D
38. A
39. B
40. C
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