this is funny: go to http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/grafs/demos/25.html and watch the video.
when watching it, try to count the total number of times that the people wearing white pass the basketball. do not count the passes made by the people wearing black.
AFTERWARDS, view the whole post. (please don’t spoil this!)
i’ve seen this experiment on bbc once, and i think it’s hilarious!
several individuals were tested this way, and many observers didn’t notice the umbrella-person walk through.
the experiment was even conducted with a guy in a black gorilla costume – walking in, pounding his breast, and walking out – and the results were similar.
it shows that people can overlook almost anything if they’re concentrated on something.
there’s more where that came from, but the page that lists those videos, tells what’s going on before you can watch it, so i took the time and blackened out the “what’s behind”-parts in my own little listing:
watch this video carefully and try to find out what’s wrong: [link #1]
| one actor changes into another actor across a cut. in general, naive observers notice such changes about 30 percent of the time. for this particular video, the noticing rate is somewhat lower. note that although the two actors are globally similar in appearance, they are wearing noticeably different clothing. |
here, try to find what changes in the picture: [link #2] [link #3] [link #4]
| the change occurred gradually over a period of 12 seconds. in video [2] and [3], objects are removed/added, and in [4], one object changes color. |
what’s also funny, is this study, which took place with unknowing subjects.
alltogether, i don’t think this is a “flaw” of the human mind. it’s more like a power – the power to ignore what’s (currently) unimportant. this gives us more time to deal with the relevant information…