Perception is an active, computationally demanding process that requires cognition as well as perception and attention involves looking at specific features of the environment in a more detailed and focused manner. Inattentional blindness occurs when a stimulus that is not attended is not perceived, even though a person is looking directly at it. Given the documented prevalence of medication error and the criticality of the information contained on the labeling that accompanies medication, research was conducted using change detection to measure the ability of TALL Man lettering to garner attention in labels.

Two populations were targeted for this study, those who were employed as healthcare professionals and those who were not. There was a significant interaction between graphic presentation (TALL Man vs traditional) and profession (P=0.0243). Time to change detection was decreased for all professions when the change was presented in a TALL Man presentation as compared to the traditional text. However, the magnitude of this difference and its significance was greatest for nurses (P<0.0001). A main effect of ordered group was evident on time to detect the change (P<0.0001), a significant positional effect of change was detected on time to detect the (P < 0.0001), and there was marginal evidence (P=0.0821) for a difference between word pairs when the dependent variable was time to change detection.