In a psychology experiment, researchers showed their subjects a one-minute movie in which six people move around a room while passing basketballs back and forth in teams of three. Subjects were instructed simply to count the number of passes made by one team. But while concentrating on their counting, nearly half of viewers completely failed to notice a woman in a gorilla suit who walks through the group, briefly pausing to pound on her chest. In all, she is on screen for nine seconds—an eternity in attention research. Repeated many times over, the experiment demonstrates the concept of “inattentional blindness,” or missing something fully visible because one fails to attend to it. For author Maggie Jackson, it serves as a reminder of the many important details in life that are overlooked because technology-addicted, overloaded multitaskers divert their attention incessantly to electronic devices.
Thinking out Loud
Simon Smailus 