Many parents have seen their child overlook something obvious, like a toy in plain sight or a person calling their name. This everyday experience may reflect a broader phenomenon called inattentional blindness—when people fail to notice unexpected but visible events while focusing on something else.
Understanding why this happens, especially in young children, could help improve safety, learning, and even early education strategies.
A new study by Hui Zhang and colleagues, published in the British Journal of Developmental Psychology (2025), explores how executive functions—mental skills involved in attention and control—relate to inattentional blindness in preschool-aged children.
The researchers found that different types of inattentional blindness in children were predicted by distinct aspects of executive function.
Specifically, stronger working memory was linked to noticing unexpected objects in a brief, static task, while better cognitive flexibility—the ability to switch focus—predicted greater awareness in a longer, moving task.
Inattentional blindness occurs when someone is so focused on a task that they fail to see something else that’s clearly visible. Classic examples include people not noticing a fire extinguisher they pass daily or missing a motorcycle while driving.
While this phenomenon has been studied extensively in adults, especially in high-risk contexts like surgery or traffic, less is known about how and why it affects young children—who may be particularly vulnerable to such lapses.
To investigate, the study recruited 154 children aged three to six from a preschool in Zhejiang Province, China.
The researchers used two tasks to measure inattentional blindness. In the first, a static task, children briefly viewed a cross and judged which line was longer—while an unexpected shape appeared on the screen.
In the second, a sustained task, children tracked a moving fish on a screen and were later asked if they noticed an unexpected object that moved across the display.
Alongside these tests, the children completed three tasks designed to measure core components of executive function: working memory (using a block-recall task), inhibition (suppressing an automatic verbal response), and cognitive flexibility (alternating between naming categories like animals and fruits).
The results showed a clear pattern.
Children with higher working memory scores were significantly more likely to detect the unexpected object in the static task.
However, working memory did not predict performance in the sustained task. Instead, children who performed better on the cognitive flexibility test were more likely to notice the unexpected stimulus in the sustained task. Inhibitory control did not significantly relate to performance in either scenario.
These findings suggest that different mental skills support different kinds of attention.
In fast, time-pressured situations—like the static task—working memory may help children manage incoming information and still remain open to new stimuli.
In slower, more dynamic contexts, the ability to shift focus seems more important. This highlights that inattentional blindness is not just a result of being distracted, but may stem from specific limitations in underlying mental processes that vary with context.
Understanding these patterns has real-world implications. Children’s inattentional blindness could put them at risk in everyday situations, such as failing to notice a moving vehicle or missing an unfamiliar face in a crowded place.
The study points to the importance of tailoring safety education and learning environments to match children’s developmental capacities, especially in early childhood when executive functions are still maturing.
These findings may also inform the design of tasks or environments that aim to reduce inattentional errors. For instance, educational apps or classroom activities that support memory and flexible thinking might help children remain more aware of important but unexpected cues in their surroundings.
While the study offers new insights, it also has limitations.
The researchers used only one task to measure each executive function component, which may not fully capture the complexity of these skills.
The task order was not randomized, which could introduce bias, although sessions were spaced out over time to reduce immediate effects.
Also, because inattentional blindness relies on unexpected events, repeating the tasks exactly isn’t feasible—a common challenge in this kind of research.
Still, the study makes a valuable contribution by showing that even in preschoolers, the ability to notice what’s around us is closely linked to how we manage our attention and thinking.
The next steps may include exploring how these skills develop over time and how interventions or educational programs can strengthen them.
For now, it reinforces a simple but important idea: noticing the world isn’t just about looking—it’s about how we think.
Citation
Zhang, H., Liang, F., Li, Y., Zhu, M., Vasseleu, E., & Howard, S. J. The role of executive functions in young children’s static and sustained inattentional blindness. British Journal of Developmental Psychology. https://doi.org/10.1111/bjdp.70004
