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That Was No Gorilla, That Was My Inattentional Blindness
By Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach, Fri Dec 9th
If you were watching a game and someone in a gorillacostume stomped across the court pounding his chest, you'dnotice, wouldn't you? According to psychologist Dan Simons, there's only a 50% chanceyou would! It's called "inattentional blindness" or "change blindness" -being too focused to see things right in front of our eyes.
According to a fascinating article in "The Carleton Voice," byJack El-Hai, when Simons had subjects watch a videoand told them to count the number of players' passes, half ofthem didn't notice when the gorilla walked across. "We have to rewind the tape to show them [the gorilla]," saidSimons. "That's what I find most interesting about all this -the size of the errors we can make. We really believe thatsomething important will attract our attention much of the time." The article continues to describe another experiment not unlikecandid camera: "A member of Simons' team approaches someone on
the street andasks for directions," says El-Hai. "As the subject begins tospeak, a crew of faux workers carrying a door abruptly squeezesbetween the two. As the door passes between them, the person whoasked for directions changes places with a third person." Again,50% didn't notice they were giving directions to a differentperson. Same thing happened when they had a waiter duck behind thecounter and a new waiter popped up. The diner kept on talking. "We have limited attentional resources," concluded Simons. Whatwe notice depends on how much else we're attending to, and thiswas true even when the subject claimed to have great visualmemory. "Practical applications of Simon's work would be airline andhighway safety," says El Hai. Scary thought. Another application - watch it with the cell in the car! We havelimited attentional resources. About the author:©Susan Dunn, The EQ Coach,offer coaching and Internet courses inemotional intelligence, applications to career andrelationships. Visit her on the web as www.susandunn.cc andmailto:sdunn@susandunn.cc for FREE ezine.
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