Excellent use of the professor’s video. There was another example (can’t post images) of radiologists examining a lung x-ray to detect nodules. There was a small gorilla (what is with gorillas?) embedded that I think 75% never saw. Actually, eye scans showed most of these experts paused on and saw the gorilla, but their focus was not to scan but detect specific patterns. They saw it, but it wasn’t related to the task, so the hierarchy of their brains dismissed the otherwise interesting detail into the subconscious.
Interesting. Makes me wonder about the risks of trying to reverse the brain's subconscious prioritization - "attention" as we understand it may be a zero sum exercise. Something along the lines of what Simons, Chabris, and Weinberger described as "increasing the load." That was probably (consciously or unconsciously) part of the purpose for the minimum speed on the driving course: needing to maintain a minimum speed added one more data point for the mind to have to focus on over the entire period of time. Reminds me of a study (which I can't find) that suggested multi-tasking isn't truly multi-tasking - your brain goes from one discrete activity to another discrete activity. You're not actually doing 2+ things at once, rather, you're bouncing between them, even if for extraordinarily short periods of time.
Interesting. I bounce a lot on routine tasks. However when assigned by self or others an ‘important’ or singular task, I hyper focus. Hence I got the 15 passes but missed the gorilla the first time. And since I’ve been this way most of my life, I don’t think you can easily re-train the brain to do otherwise. It’s gotten somewhat better/easier as I’ve aged and it may depend on how you ‘assign’ the task to your brain. Or it may just be in your specific family genetic makeup.
Fascinating. I failed, I counted only 13 passes twice, and because I was hyper focused on the white shirted person passes I missed the gorilla suit entirely. What our brains filter & perceive can indeed be varied.
Exactly, as this (and other) research states; our brains “lack the architecture” to process more than one thing at a time (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7075496/). If you’ve ever driven a familiar route and realize you don’t recall the drive specifics when you reach your destination, it’s because you were focusing on an increased cognitive load, and attention to driving was pushed down the stack. Forcing you to focus on the minimum speed meant rapid switching so that you didn’t let that task fall below your active attention. Part of a lecture series I used to give ending with: “Now add texting to your drive…”
I counted 17 passes, so I guess I imagined two and really had to laugh when that gorilla strolled in during the 2nd watch. I honestly thought the gorilla suggestion was some kind of trick and there wouldn't be a gorilla! I do remember thinking something annoying is happening making it harder to concentrate on the people in white passing the ball. Guess that was the gorilla.
Excellent use of the professor’s video. There was another example (can’t post images) of radiologists examining a lung x-ray to detect nodules. There was a small gorilla (what is with gorillas?) embedded that I think 75% never saw. Actually, eye scans showed most of these experts paused on and saw the gorilla, but their focus was not to scan but detect specific patterns. They saw it, but it wasn’t related to the task, so the hierarchy of their brains dismissed the otherwise interesting detail into the subconscious.
Interesting. Makes me wonder about the risks of trying to reverse the brain's subconscious prioritization - "attention" as we understand it may be a zero sum exercise. Something along the lines of what Simons, Chabris, and Weinberger described as "increasing the load." That was probably (consciously or unconsciously) part of the purpose for the minimum speed on the driving course: needing to maintain a minimum speed added one more data point for the mind to have to focus on over the entire period of time. Reminds me of a study (which I can't find) that suggested multi-tasking isn't truly multi-tasking - your brain goes from one discrete activity to another discrete activity. You're not actually doing 2+ things at once, rather, you're bouncing between them, even if for extraordinarily short periods of time.
Interesting. I bounce a lot on routine tasks. However when assigned by self or others an ‘important’ or singular task, I hyper focus. Hence I got the 15 passes but missed the gorilla the first time. And since I’ve been this way most of my life, I don’t think you can easily re-train the brain to do otherwise. It’s gotten somewhat better/easier as I’ve aged and it may depend on how you ‘assign’ the task to your brain. Or it may just be in your specific family genetic makeup.
Fascinating. I failed, I counted only 13 passes twice, and because I was hyper focused on the white shirted person passes I missed the gorilla suit entirely. What our brains filter & perceive can indeed be varied.
Exactly, as this (and other) research states; our brains “lack the architecture” to process more than one thing at a time (https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7075496/). If you’ve ever driven a familiar route and realize you don’t recall the drive specifics when you reach your destination, it’s because you were focusing on an increased cognitive load, and attention to driving was pushed down the stack. Forcing you to focus on the minimum speed meant rapid switching so that you didn’t let that task fall below your active attention. Part of a lecture series I used to give ending with: “Now add texting to your drive…”
I counted 17 passes, so I guess I imagined two and really had to laugh when that gorilla strolled in during the 2nd watch. I honestly thought the gorilla suggestion was some kind of trick and there wouldn't be a gorilla! I do remember thinking something annoying is happening making it harder to concentrate on the people in white passing the ball. Guess that was the gorilla.