Which cognitive process describes the inability to notice changes in the environment?

The cognitive process that accurately describes the inability to notice changes in the environment is change blindness. This phenomenon occurs when a significant visual change happens in a scene, yet an observer fails to perceive it due to limitations in visual perception and attentional resources. Change blindness demonstrates how our cognitive system prioritizes certain aspects of our surroundings while often overlooking others, particularly when the changes are gradual or when the visual scene is disrupted in some way.

In contrast, selective attention refers to focusing on a specific aspect of the environment while ignoring others, which is a different mechanism than failing to notice a change. Inattentional blindness is somewhat related, as it describes the failure to notice an unexpected stimulus when attention is directed elsewhere, but it does not specifically address the failure to perceive changes that occur over time within the same scene. Divided attention involves processing multiple streams of information simultaneously, which can lead to decreased awareness of changes, but it does not accurately define the specific phenomenon of failing to notice changes in the environment.