by Abby WentzellDo you consider yourself to be pretty observant? Many people put a lot of trust in their eyes and their brain to pick up on things that are important. However, it isn’t always possible for our brain to notice everything, even things that are strangely and obviously out of place. It can shock and even scare people to realize that their brains aren’t as reliable as they think... A study conducted by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simmons in 1999 proved many people wrong about the reliability of their brains. In the study, participants were shown a video of two teams, a team in white and a team in black, and the participants were asked by Chabris and Simmons try their best and count how many times the white team passed a basketball back and forth. Halfway through the video, a man wearing a gorilla suit walks into the middle of the court, stops, pounded his hands on his chest, and then leaves. This most definitely a questionable occurrence that you’d imagine people would be taken slightly aback by. However, Chabris and Simmons found that over 50% of the participants in the study did not notice the gorilla man. The entire concept of those results is hard to wrap your head around. How could a gorilla enter a seemingly normal situation, such as the one in the video, and have so many people not just fail to acknowledge the gorilla but miss it completely? Chabris and Simmons were not surprised by their results. They were experimenting with the concept of inattentional blindness, which is the failure to notice or pick up on an unexpected though fully visible object because focus is devoted to another task. Many of the participants in the study ended up being perfectly displaying inattentional blindness without even knowing it. In fact, even after the participants who claimed they didn’t see the gorilla were told that one had indeed appeared in the video, over half of them didn’t believe Chabris and Simmons. These doubtful participants said that if a gorilla had actually appeared in the video, there’s no way they would have overlooked it or missed it, and therefore it must not have happened. Chabris and Simmons explain that as human beings, we are sure that if something is clearly visible to us, we will be able to pick up on it without fail. However, what most people don’t know is that is not true and inattentional blindness is the concept that contradicts this. In today’s world, we are in cars moving over 60 miles per hour on a highway. This was not the case during the time when our brains were first evolving so that type of hyperfocus and need to be able to distinguish unexpected things at such high speeds was not necessary. Chabris and Simons use this analogy to better explain why our brains can’t be relied on to notice everything, and that it’s normal to be so focused on one thing that you might not notice, let’s say, a gorilla. When originally hearing about the video and the participants who completely missed the entrance and exit of the gorilla, it’s easy to think that I could never fall for that, or that I would surely notice the gorilla, I mean, how could I not? However, going back and watching the video myself, keeping in mind I knew what was going to happen, I could totally see how I could potentially miss the gorilla when I was supposed to be focusing on the white team’s passing of the ball. The concept of being so consumed by one thing, that you can completely oversee something else entirely is relevant to my life, and to all of our lives. Attention is key in school, but also things I am involved with outside of school like sports and theatre. In addition, when I think of this concept I also think about driving and how crucial it is to be aware of what’s happening all around you. I got my license a few months ago, and I am very aware of how drastic the statistics are about the number of new drivers that get into accidents during their first few years on the road. Cell phones and texting have also extremely impacted these statistics recently. Though sometimes I hear my phone go off when I am driving and feel the urge to look at it, I know how important it is not to, because studies like this one show how the brain is not capable of focusing on many things at once. The Invisible Gorilla study is extremely eye-opening and relevant to today’s society, especially because with growing technology, things are always moving so fast around us. I think this study was created to show people that they aren’t always as smart as they think they are, and even if we believe we are so alert, it is still very possible that we are missing things and to always be aware of that. The brain is capable of so so much, but multitasking is not always a strong suit so we as humans have to be as diligent as possible. Full Article:
https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126977945 Image Link: https://gorillafund.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/09/03082016_TibaVieira_081-1024x682.jpg Simons, C. C. (2010, May 19). Bet You Didn't Notice 'The Invisible Gorilla'. Retrieved from https://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=126977945
0 Comments
Leave a Reply. |
Ms. Carrigan's Psych ClassWe have been reading articles about psychological studies to inform the way we live our lives. Please explore, and we hope you learn a bit about the psychology in your life! Categories
All
Archives
November 2019
|