Reduced Repetition Blindness for One's Own Name

• Published in: Visual cognition Vol. 6; no. 6; pp. 609 - 635
• Main Authors: Arnell, Karen M., Shapiro, Kimron L., Sorensen, Robyn E.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Basingstoke Taylor & Francis Group 01.12.1999; Taylor & Francis
• Subjects: Biological and medical sciences; Fundamental and applied biological sciences. Psychology; Perception; Psychology. Psychoanalysis. Psychiatry; Psychology. Psychophysiology; Vision; Human; Language; Vision; Repetitive stimulus; Perception; Cognition; Proper noun; Experimental study
• ISSN: 1350-6285; 1464-0716
• DOI: 10.1080/135062899394876

We report a series of studies demonstrating reduced repetition blindness (RB) for one's own name. Participants searched RSVP streams for their own name and another name, and reported how many times these names appeared in each stream. In half of the streams containing two names, the same name was repeated; in the other half, the two names were different. Half of the repetitions were the participant's own name, half were another name. The results showed large RB for the "other name" condition, and attenuated, but significant, RB for the "own name" condition. This reduction in RB for the participant's own name was found when participants searched for the target names among nouns, among other names, and when participants just detected the presence or absence of the second name. Reduced RB for one's own name helps to reduce previous uncertainty regarding the existence of lexical and conceptual RB for words.