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Subscribe to RSSEven if you're expecting the unexpected, you're still going to miss some things, suggests a new study. In some cases, those things will be wearing gorilla suits.
A well-known study in the late '90s asked participants to watch a video and count the number of times a group of students -- some dressed in white, some in black -- passed a basketball back and forth. In the middle of the video, a person dressed in a gorilla suit runs into the middle of the game, and then sticks around for a bit while he waves his hairy arms and beats his chest. The funny thing? About half of those who watched the video didn't notice it. It's an example of what's called "inattentional blindness." That's a term that describes our inability to notice something that's happening right in front of us, usually because it's unexpected, or because our attention is focused elsewhere.
The new study, published this month in the journal i-Perception, builds on the original experiment: Say the participants have heard of the original study, and know to look for the gorilla. Would they notice other unexpected events introduced in the short video? Would you? Check it out here.
As University of Illinois psychology professor Dan Simons reminds us, "Looking isn't the same as seeing." Simons co-authored this study and the original study with Union College psychology professor Christopher Chabris. The two have published a book called "The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us," in which they tackle everyday illusions. One example you're not going to like: Talking on your cell phone as you drive really does reduce your awareness of obvious dangers on the road, even if you're using a hands-free device.
Can you think of a time -- while driving, watching a sports event, or anything else -- when you failed to notice something that was happening right in front of you? Tell us about it in the comments.
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I like the comparison to talking on a cell phone while driving. I've noticed something over and over lately as I walk around town. Most noticeable when I'm crossing the street at an intersection. Seemingly without fail, women talking on cell phones adopt a posture that clearly shows their attention is diverted from the road. It's anecdotal, but I haven't seen any exceptions with female drivers. They always are invert their gaze in a tilt away from the road, downward and inward toward their bodies, like they are trying to privatize the conversation. It's is stunning in that it is always the same, woman after woman I watch driving through intersections with their averted, inward gaze.
BUT . . . I never see this with male drivers. The male drivers are talking and looking straight ahead while they drive. It would appear men can multi-task driving and talking, while women seem to automatically go into a relational posture and protective one, that appears to severely diminish their driving attention.
I've seen this so much, it's worth a study! And it really is frightening on a safety level. I want to wrench the phones out of the hands of these women! They are endangering everyone, and seem oblivious.
All people, both men and women, lose some of their focus while talking on a cell phone. Typically peripheral vision drops out. Next time you talk on the cell phone while driving try to pay attention to your side windows. You will probably notice the loss of visual field.
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There is already enough evidence to show talking on the phone while driving is a hazard, it should be outlawed.
Just because the men have an upright posture and have their heads facing forward doesn't mean that they are actually "seeing" what they're looking at any better than the women are. When I think of all the times I've almost been hit by someone running a stop sign or red light it's just as often a man as a woman.
Last week a lot of people got upset over a story about a woman who forgot her baby in the back seat. The baby died. Despite the evidence that it was nothing but a tragic accident a lot of writers were very vindictive and were ready to send her to jail for life. Maybe they should think about this story an how we can very easily focus on one thing and totally miss something vital. It happens. The poor woman in question suffered enough and should have had all proceedings dismissed. It's time to end the vindictiveness in America. It's time to show a little understanding that perhaps things are not as you believe.
That's a great point, Bob. Extra credit reading: There was a heartbreaking Washington Post feature on that very subject last year.
I agree with Melissa. Nicely stated. And my two cents. Having to live with it for the rest of her life will be enough.
Just this morning, after driving my 3 children to swimming lessons, I discovered that I had failed to buckle my 2-year-old in his carseat. I was shocked at my oversight, and grateful no harm had come because of it. I see how that kind of tragic mistake can happen, especially if the mother of a young baby is sleep deprived or has other children to look after as well.
Until we perfect lie detector tests, and brain scans for psychopaths, we will always have to go . . hmmm?! People are not always what they seem, or what they can convince us they are.
I'm in total agreement with Den-1189913---the mom has to live with her tragic loss the rest of her life...if THAT isn't punnishment enough, knowing that SHE ,though unintentionally, caused the death of her precious child.........I honestly don't think any human being with a brain and a heart could be so cruel as to think she needs to be punnished any further.
A very powerful and wrenching article.
If you've ever watched any of the Hotshot movies, most of the action is actually happening in the background. Same goes for most spoof movies. That's why it's best to watch them several times in order to catch all the funny stuff going on.
Airplane is the best movie for that! Seen it countless time and STILL find things I've missed.
Check out Frameworks: Conflict in Balance. The book describes how context makes variables invisible and visible depending on the theory de jour. The most obvious things can disappear in front of our eyes and the most obscure can become a neon light. It's as if we wouldn't have seen it if we hadn't already believed it.
It's illegal to talk on a cell phone while driving but not illegal to talk to a passanger in the car. Or talk to myself while I drive, should all be the same.
I understand need for hands-free, some people are so busy hanging on to phone they forget to let go in emergency. But not talking? Should also make it illegal to think while driving. Thinking is very distracting.
One thing I cannot figure out is, besides actually working the mechanical aspects of a cell phone, how is it simply talking on one distracts you ( and I've experienced that it does), when you can drive just fine chatting away with a passenger in the car? Or is even talking to other occupants a hazard?
They say that with 1 person in the car your chance of an accident goes up by 20% percent, 2 - 40%, 3- 60% and 4 its not a matter of if but when. I dont ahve any proof to confirm or deny this, I jsut remeber it from drivers ed.
On a side note: the only time I almost got in a accident, I had 4 people in the car having a conversation.
For me, talking to passengers is also a distraction, as is listening to the radio, glancing at the GPS device, etc. On days when my thinking isn't as focussed as other days -- maybe I'm tired, worried, upset, hormonal, etc -- and the traffic is challenging, I will ask my passengers to be quiet for a while.
I believe it's because when you are talking with someone in the car, your attention is still present, right there, in the car. But when you talk to someone on a cell phone, that person is not in the car and you project your attention toward the person you are speaking. It's as if you have transported your awareness to the location of the person on the phone; you are, in effect, no longer in the vehicle.
Also, a passenger can also act as a second pair of eyes for road hazards and can quiet down when traffic is challenging. Someone on the other end of a phone call can't. Even so, I'm better when driving alone.
Interestingly, I also find I do better if I'm not listening to music, but singing along. It seems to help me stay "present."
Yes Bill, It is a hazard. So is eating a burger, drinking a pop, looking at your hair in the mirror, reading a billboard, looking at someones spinning 25" wheels, etc. We all drive distracted at times. There are just a lot of people ganging up on the cell phone thing right now. It's the peev du jour. But talking on one is nothing compared to texting on one. That, if anything should be banned. That's like reading a magazine while driving. But no matter what laws you make to make the world idiot proof, some idiot will prove it's not. They just get more idiotic.
one of my geek friends at work was bragging bout his new gps. it even plays dvds. iam glad we drive into work from totally different directions.
In "Wesley the Owl: The Remarkable Love Story of an Owl and His Girl" by Stacey O'Brien , the author tells about people not hearing owls screeching and swooping right over their heads, or not hearing owls calling from other rooms in the house. People can miss lots of what goes on in the "natural world" simply because they don't expect it or are not in tune with it. All sorts of things go on and you can't see them if you don't know to look. I never noticed Volvos on the road until I bought one - then saw them all over the place.
Cell phones and music are distracting whether driving or not, and passengers included when driving. I don't use the phone when driving but have arrived at a destination wondering how I got there because I was lost in my thoughts! Obviously, I was driving by rote and part of my brain had to be paying attention or I would be dead. This topic goes much deeper and I'd like to know more about it.
Here's another similar anomaly you can try if you're an iPhone or iPad user and have ever played the game Flight Control. I noticed that many times, if the game throws up a bunch of planes in one corner of the screen, you get busy controlling the little planes just up in that corner and you won't even notice the planes entering in on the opposite corner and they crash. :)
I think this is the same thing as happens to you while trying so hard to track the ball in this video. Your brain can only focus on so many things at once.
I wonder how all this relates to understanding ADD better. Also, how reliable is our brain when it goes on auto pilot when driving? Like Lynn's comment, I've noticed that if I'm in a zone while driving (auto pilot is on) and miss my offramp, I immediately recognize that things don't look right and the auto pilot kicks off.....
I noticed the background changing, but just assumed it a visual artifact of the blue screen filming. I also detected a player in black walking away, but felt it was immaterial to the task at hand (which was to keep track of the the number of passes).
I already knew the gorilla would show. Can't say if I would have noticed it or not, but since I noticed the background and player walking away, my guess is that I would have.
Several years ago, the Sunday Washington Post used to have odd phrases inserted in the headings of the front page of the Style section in place of the date. This happened over and over, but as far as I know, only on Sundays. When I'd ask friends if they had noticed the odd non sequiturs, I found that nobody ever did. I figured that the typesetters were playing games, just to see if anybody noticed. After a couple of months - or maybe longer - the odd headings stopped. I was really sorry, because they used to make me laugh.
That's hilarious! Love it. Do you remember what any of the odd phrases or headings were?
As a career military policeman who played a "bad guy" for countless training scenarios I can tell you that I learned long before the age of cell phones that folks are almost blind when they are talking to someone thay cannot see - such as when they are talking on a police radio. I think it is because they use the same part of their brain to visualize the person to whom they are speaking as they use to process actual images.
It would be interesting to scan the brains of three different groups of people talking on a phone: a person talking on a telephone to someone they know well (immediate family member), a person talking on a phone to a stranger, and a person who has been blind from birth talking to a person on a phone. I'd bet the person talking to a family member would use much more of that part of the brain that processes visual stimuli than would either of the other two.
Very interesting thought. I hope you look into this if you have the time or take it further than this.
Interesting idea. I'd also be interested to test the difference between men and women, to see if there really is something to support the stereotype that Maire-1716447 suggested. I would be inclined to guess that there really is nothing to support the stereotype. Funny.. sometimes stereotypes can make us as blind to alternative scenarios as anything else.
this is a common occurence with me. I usually drive home and have no idea how I got there for the most part. I know I braked and changed lanes, etc, but my mind is basically on automatic. Interesting!!!
Hah, I ride a motorcycle and people do not see me. After they run me off into a ditch or yard and if they notice they will apologize and say that they did not see me. I cheerfully accept their apology because, in fact, they did not.
I wonder if the military can do more to implement this type of recognition to avoid friendly fire incidents?
Recently there have been some incidents that have made some pretty major headlines, the wikileaks incident and most recently the incident that Rachel Maddow spoke about in Afghanistan.
Often times we have soldiers or Marines who fail to follow proper procedures prior to giving the kill command or electing to fire.
But my question is how often do they miss what's right in front of them, regardless of how well they are trained or how well the targeting technology they utilize to make the decision to fire is?
I ask this question because of this interesting video clip about 50% of people who miss what's right in front of them, my guess is the people are well rested and certainly are not under any type of stress or pressure when they see a video like this.
Love is commonly missed by those looking for it. In my early 20s a young man and I were really good friends. We talked about our individual futures. What we both wanted. This went on for a while. (Let me add we were in the military at the time and not living in the same city. We were both up for orders to transfer at that time). I enjoyed his conversation, friendship, and support. However, because we never discussed a relationship directly it eluded me that he was interested in being more than friends. When I started dating my now ex-husband and we decided to get married I phone my great friend to let him know. To my surprise he replies, "what have we been doing." What? (Him) We have been talking about life, goals, being stationed in the same etc. (Me) Oh, I don't know. Just an example of how we miss the obvious because we are looking at something else entirely. Our sight goes towards our focus. Most times they are both off...............
douche
About 15-20 years magazines started to have a "spoof" article in their April issue in honor of April Fools Day. Until I became aware of this practice (and I only became aware of the practice in the May issue of one of that same computer magazines when readers of the April issue complained about the spoof that every desktop computer had a built-in audio or video device that could "spy" on the user. It was written so convincingly that so many people believed the spoof and spent many (obviously) unproductive hours trying to find and disable the tracking devices.)
Now that I know of the April Spoofs, I actually look forward to finding which articles are the spoofs, and 99% of the time I can identify the rouge articles. The Spoof articles have become very sophisticated, so if someone is not aware of this practice, they probably will not identify it. Interesting, huh?
This is the second time watching this video .The first time i watched it,i was taking English Composition 1 and i was among the half of the class who saw the Gorrilla.This time i never noticed the disappearance of the player nor did i see the curtains changing colors.This video is a great example of'inattentional blindness'.i had so many instances when i passed by my friends,and literally crossing each other. and never saw them even when i was looking right at them.they said i was looking at them and they were waving at me but i never saw them or paid attention ,and i always had a hard time explaining to them that i was not trying to turn a blind eye at them.Now thanks to this study, i can prove to them that we all have our 'inattentional blindess'moments.
I have also noticed that I don't see objects I don't know or understand. I don't use the function keys on my keyboard, so I visually and mentally dismiss them. If I'm shown how something works or am made aware of an object's purpose, I see it and notice other objects like it. Like Charles Walsh said about not noticing a brand of car until he owned one, I wonder if people only see what they are familiar with. Perhaps that's one reason why people can pass by homeless people lying on the sidewalk without seeming to notice.
I saw the gorilla, but didn't notice the background changing or player walk away until the 2nd viewing -- mainly because I was so proud of myself for seeing the gorilla, that I stopped paying close attention.
It would be interesting for the study to go deeper into what types are more likely to see the unexpected gorilla as well as other changes -- people who consider themselves detailed oriented or people who are more big picture thinkers? Would we be surprised by the results?
As horrible as this was, I did 'miss' something. Driving home in rural Georgia at night I swerved to miss a dead animal in the road. I was also lost and had to turn around after a few moments. When I got back to the 'dead animal' there were a few cars pulled over. What was really in the middle of the road was a woman's arm. She had been hit by a truck and left for dead. The men who ran over her were caught a few days later, BTW.
Talking to someone on the phone while driving is SAFER than talking to someone seated next to you. When talking on the phone you can continue to look forward while conversations with a person seated next to you require occasional eye contact or looks in that direction.
I therefore propose a legistlation that talking to a passengar while driving be outlawed!
Wait. Why would you propose such a ridiculous thing? That's Obama's job!
I believe that the ability to focus on a given task at the expense of missing (ignoring) periphery details (“inattentional blindess”) can be a good thing. When watching this new video, I felt prompted to pay attention to more than just the number of times the team in white passed the ball. Consequently, I noticed the gorilla replacing one member of the team in black. But I can’t say I’m pleased with my results. Quite the opposite. Objective was to count the number of ball passes. Correct answer was 16. I came up with somewhere between 14 and 17. I failed the task, I lost count because I took my eye off the mark.
Some said after watching the video that they did notice the team replacement and/or the color change. Well, I would ask if they were 100% confident in the number of passes. It would be interesting to see what changes occur if there were a significant consequence to having incorrect pass count.
Since the brain can only do so much at one time, the real question is deciding when to stay focused on the specific task at hand and when to include surroundings.
I once searched for a set of keys which I misplaced somewhere in the house. I thought the key chain was blue and searched everywhere for the blue object. When I finally found the keys, it had a red key chain. The keys were in fact placed in a very obvious spot, but I overlooked it several times because my mind was focussed on looking for something blue and not red.