As humans, we are surprisingly adept at not noticing things. But just to prove it, researchers occasionally get the funding to conduct wonderfully entertaining studies that prove just how oblivious we can be. One involved getting people half drunk – just enough to miss seeing a stranger in a bear suit, but not quite drunk enough to definitely see Joe Biden in an elephant costume. That’s a fine distinction that’s not easy to duplicate in the lab.
The idea of doing a can-you-see-the-dude-in-an-animal-suit study goes back to a famous trial in 1999, where subjects were asked to count the number of times the people wearing white passed the basketball. Here’s the video:
Half the participants in the study didn’t see the simian. The conclusion drawn from this is that people misjudge their own ability to notice significant, unexpected events while they are are concentrating on a task. It’s called “Inattentional Blindness”.
As far as I can figure, this type of blindness is inattentional, unintentional, and surprisingly conventional. No matter how you re-arrange that sentence, it’s fun to say, although most people will totally miss it if you try to make it a punch line.
A couple of weeks ago, I took my wife’s Toyota to the priciest, slickest car wash in our part of town – the closest thing we have to a spa for automobiles. I signed the vehicle up for an exterior / interior makeover. On the outside it got a nice thorough cleaning and a thick coat of wax. On the inside, it was given the brisk but professional attention of a swarm of guys with vacuums and polishing cloths. It’s not as indulgent as sending the thing off to a luxury retreat in the Sonoran Desert for a crude oil bath and new-car-smell aromatherapy, but if I were a 2009 coupe, I would feel rejuvenated.
Of course, if I were an automobile that incorporated even a few of my human personality traits, I would be the subject of a very expensive lawsuit right now.
When I walked out into the drying-off area to re-claim the vehicle, I noticed the emergency flashers had been turned on. “Nice touch”, I thought. “They’re concerned about safety.” Plus, it gave the impression to everyone nearby that something significant had just happened. When I slid behind the wheel I couldn’t immediately see how to turn the flashers off and more cars were coming out of the wash line behind me, so I drove out to the street and parked, blinking all the way.
Looking over the dashboard, I checked the area around the radio, near the temperature controls, all the way down the console to the gearshift. Nothing. I tried the stalks on either side of the steering column. One controlled the lights, the other the windshield washers. Nope. I looked around the cruise control buttons, the instrument cluster, overhead where the sunroof switches are located. No emergency flasher button. Weird. By its very nature of being a necessary feature in times of stress, the emergency button should be easy to find. I looked at all the places again and again with the same result each time. I pulled out the owners manual and found no listing under “Emergency” or “Warning”. I looked through the “lights” section. I checked out the dashboard illustration. Why weren’t they telling me anything about the dang flashers?
Time was running out. The car was due back at home ten minutes ago, but I didn’t want to drive it with my blinkers going, so I swallowed my pride and walked back up to the car wash exit where the same platoon of guys were busily polishing and drying off the next and the next in an endless stream of vehicles.
“You guys turned on my emergency flashers,” I yelled to a manger-type over the sound of the mechanical drying equipment, “and I know I should be able to find the switch, but I can’t.”
He didn’t roll his eyes, but I could tell he wanted to.
We walked out to the car. He opened the door, reached in, and without looking, tapped a HUGE button in the middle of the dashboard. The button bore a mammoth red triangle large enough to post as a warning sign on the back of an Amish mega-bus.
I laughed out loud at the absurdity of it all, and thanked him. He said nothing, and just walked away, shaking his head. “Jerk,” I thought. “I just gave you a great story about a numbskull with inattentional blindness, and for this I get no gratitude.”
Now that I think back on it, he might have been wearing a gorilla suit.
When have you suffered from Inattentional Blindness?
Trail Baboon 
Rise and Shine Babooners:
Inattentional Blindness? All the time. I look for one thing and in doing so miss the elephant in the room. Usually it involves, “Where is ______ ? I put that in the refrigerator last night!” I come back and there it is on the second shelf staring me in the face. Refrigerators seem particularly able to create this malady. Misspelled words are also a source. It looks wrong, but I just can’t come up with the problem.
Remember the old children’s magazine, Highlights? On the back page they always had a “Find the hidden objects” puzzle that played on this very concept. I always loved that, but rarely could find all of the hidden stuff. I think I’m not that hard to fool. This must also be related to missing stuff and Steve’s theory of go back to where you lost it and look around in there. I love Bev Doolittle’s paintings of the American West and Native Americans because she also uses this concept.
Hiding in plain sight.
Off to the day. I’ll be very attentive today.
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OK — I don’t know if I should feel stupid right now or just human. Suffice it to say that I WOULD have noticed the gorilla if he had been wearing white! Any points for counting the right number of passes?
I’m pretty sure this happens to me all the time, but I don’t usually know it. Although I’m convinced that Inattentional Blindness is related to the condition that leads me to put things in places “so I know I can find them later” and then not be able to find them later!
Morning Booners!
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well, i just got my “welcome to Medicare” letter yesterday
and
yesterday, for the first time, Mom didn’t know me. she thought i was Brigitte, my brothers wife. i knew this because she smiled and said what a nice girl i was and how nice it was that i visited her. and for a moment she “thought that you were barb, ha, ha.” i said i WAS barb and she said “nooooooooo, ha, ha” sounds sad, but she seems happy.
gotta pay attention to where those years go. gosh.
a good and gracious morning to You All
Sugar is still here and still not giving T any attention. i think this is intentional inattention. she’s messing with me and with him too.
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I hope this does not sound insensitive, but it sounds like my situation with my mother, in that I feel certain we would have a much nicer visit if she thought I was my sister-in-law (who I always say is her favorite daughter-for the record, I have 2 brothers, no sisters).
Good for you to appreciate that she is happy, I know several confused older people who are constantly anxious, so hard to see.
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Oh, don’t say that! I’m counting on senility to be bleary but pleasant. That’s my long-term health program.
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When a parent doesn’t recognize you is tough. My father sometimes used my mom and his macular degeneration as a crutch and cover for not getting a name in his head for people. But, like your mom, he seemed happy enough. Kept playing the piano (sometimes the same snippet of a song several times in a row) and that was about all he needed. Sending you a little extra strength to save for when you need it.
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Barb, I think it is very good of you to be in regular contact with your mother as she suffers through the problems of old age. I was told by a person working at a nursing home that there are many older people in nursing homes that get very few or no visits from their families. This is very sad.
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Barb, I feel for you, and I know several people who have survived this phase by keeping their sense of humor… which it sounds like you’ll be able to do.
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ah, mom not knowing me started happening last year….i understand…all i can do at this point is try to see the humor. i was visiting recently and she seemed ok with me there, but when my brother and sister came in, she said to them, in a loud aside while pointing at me, “we’ve got to get rid of her!”
🙂
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Steve’s Mom got paranoid about him – he was her hands-down fave – but she would wait until he left the room and then say she didn’t trust him. so don’t worry, Kay. you probably were the favorite!
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it’s not insensitive at all to be happy that she’s not anxious. and yes, it IS good that she thinks i’m Brig for the very same reasons MIG. i got a bunch more smiles than i usually do! and we talked! she told me that she was getting a babysitting job this summer, to make some money to buy a car. needed a car. said Dad (my Father) always said to her “you need a car for every freaking little thing!” she hasn’t been able to move more than a finger for the last 6 months. i said “are you going to drive it?” she said “well, i’m not going to push it! ha, ha”
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That is just plain delightful-sounds like you are both coping well.
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My dad had MS. He died in 1997 after spending the last 13 years of his life in a nursing home. Mom visited everyday and I tried to get there monthly. He loved people and visiting all of his life, so was happy if people visited whether he knew who they were or not. Even at the end of his life he would light up when any one walked through the door. About the last 10 years of his life he did not know me often, and when he did it only lasted several minutes. The foot of his bed was positioned near the bathroom door. I used the potty one day, and came back to his room and got a hearty, “Well hello. How are you?”
So I (re)introduced myself, had 30 seconds of conversation, then he was gone. I tried it several times and always got the same response.
I told my sister about it and we laughed so hard. She said, “Well Jack, you gotta understand each moment is new and fresh!”
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If you want to be the hit of a nursing home bring small children; and it’s darn good for the children. too.
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Heighdy ho, Baboons! Sometimes I think my life is a series of variations on the theme of inattentional blindness. I have it down to an art. I experienced a particularly sad failed romance several years ago because I was concentrating on the two big issues that we had identified as crucial in the relationship. I never saw the gorilla coming.
Self-deception often contributes to this. We overlook the obvious because our natures encourage us to see what we find comforting. The stolid, inarticulate husband fails to perceive his wife’s need for romance because he prefers to believe what counts in marriage is being a “good provider,” not a sweet talker.
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A cautionary tale…
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I’m sorry, but was there a question to answer this morning? I didn’t see one.
Almost done with the latest deadline. Folks who know Bert and Ernie of Sesame Street will be happy to know that knitting a sweater for Ernie is a fairly straightforward, enjoyable experience, while knitting Bert’s sweater is fraught with tedious details and lots of places that can trip you up. Hmmmmm.
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Seems appropriate given how finicky Bert can be. Ernie probably wouldn’t notice a big hole, a mustard stain or a gorilla in his sweater.
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Ha!
Maybe there was a question, maybe not. But only if you WANT to see it.
And Bert and Ernie, like most Sesame Street characters, provide a lesson for living in the real world – some people are easy to deal with and some will make you work.
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Is the question about knowing where the emergency flasher is on your car? I don’t think I do…..
I’ll have to look after work, but it will be dark by then.
I’ll bet Bert would know where his emergency flasher button is.
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Can I ask why you are knitting for Bert and Ernie? Their striped shirts look plenty warm!
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I knit their striped sweaters for the tours and theme parks. The company I work for is the only one authorized by Sesame Workshop to supply these and I am the only one who knits them (an a machine, fear not-still a piece of work though, with Ernie sporting a 58″ waist!) You are quite correct, they are plenty warm.
They have been known to sport Hawaiian shirts sometimes in Florida 😀
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So do you work for VEE Corp? I have a friend in graphic design there…
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I used to work there fulltime in the fur salon (no kidding) now I just free-lance the sweaters. Who is your friend?
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Tara Nitz. Short, brunette with glasses…ton o’ fun.
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Not familiar with Tara, but I have been “off-campus” for about 4 years now.
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Not sure when Tara started there – I’ve known her about 3 years, and she’s worked there as long as I’ve known her. Like the idea of a Fur Salon. Would be a warm, fuzzy place to be in winter (though maybe itchy sometimes, too).
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MIG, you have a knitting monopoly, you knitting baron!
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Jacque, I know, I hold an exalted position in the world, and yet, I still am having a hard time convincing my subjects at home that IN the hamper is preferable to beside the hamper as a dirty sock repository.
Maybe I need business cards?
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Hmm? People were passing a basketball? I was busy looking for the gorilla.
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Good one, Dale. I am appalled and incredulous to say that I did not see the gorilla. Even did a replay to see if there was really one in the part before the rewind to show the gorilla. Uffda.
I’ll think of others later, I imagine, but I’ve had the same dang experience looking for the emergency flasher, and the same chagrin when I finally found it. Will see if I can find it again next car trip.
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BiR….. join the club. I too was absolutely sure that they were messing with me, so I also started the clip over. Good thing I look good in red!
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Good morning to all intentionally, conventionally, and not inattentionally,
I spent most of yesterday failing to try one the most obvious possible solutions to solving the bad behavior of my computer. I know that turning off a computer and turning it back on will frequently “repair” a computer problem. Some how, yesterday, I thought that I should try every thing else I could think of to get rid of the problem I was having. I finally gave up and started using another older computer I almost never use. Late in the day, I finally remembered that restarting might solve my problem and it did.
It is frustrating to deal with a computer that doesn’t do what it should. Also, it is not very smart to forget about the technique that is a”golden rule” for fixing programed machines, do a restart to reset the programs that run these machines. I hope today goes better and that none of you babooners have inattentional problems like I had with my conputer or like Dale’s problem with the flasher button.
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Great story about the car wash and emergency flasher thing… they never told me that they moved it from the steeling wheel column!! I have a later model car (1996) with it still there as a pull out knob.
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I think part of the problem is that icon, which does not say “4-way flasher” to me. I think of that as the “Amish button.”
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True. In whose brain does “4-way flashers” suggest a triangular symbol?
Maybe it’s just me, but I think in Dale’s photo it looks like the nose in a smiley face.
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Okay, now I’m thinking of a four-way flasher as someone you probably don’t want near an elementary school…
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Yes, James (and Steve),
I was looking in the areas where that button/control has been in all my previous cars. I simply could not get my mind to accept that the button would be somewhere else or a different size. By emphasizing it, Toyota made it invisible (to me, that day).
What if there WAS an “Amish Button”? What would the car do (or not do) if you pushed it?
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The Amish button makes the Triangle sign appear on the trunk, no?
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like!
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And it reduces your vehicle speed to 11 mph.
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If you’re really lucky, the Amish button makes you a batch of delicious Cashew Crunch candy (my favorite Amish made sweeet).
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Or Friendship bread starter.
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I think the car would raise its trunk and poop out the back end like a horse.
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Oh Jacque– now THAT’S funny!
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Morning!
Yea… I usually miss the stuff that has been put back where it’s supposed to be but I’m not expecting it. Refrigerator and kitchen cupboards are my prime spots.
Part of it goes with that ‘hurrying’ thing we talked about the other day. Just slow down take a breath or you’re going to trip over the thing you’re looking for… tools in the shop especially.
I saw the gorilla but got the count wrong… but I had warning about the Gorilla so I think that influenced my viewing. (I read the whole post earlier before watching the video…)
… off subject… I have been getting so many institutional emails about videos we need to watch and mandatory workshops to make us better employee’s I don’t have time to get my work done! Arrgh!!
… I must be missing how obviously important all this stuff is…
Gotta go to a meeting—
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gee, I miss production meetings–sigh
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Yeah; production meetings are fun. Especially the first, more creative ones where everyone brainstorms?! LOVE those…
My director and I are all giddy about potential shows for next season… forgetting / ignoring the the next two shows we have to do this year….
Would that be ‘Inattentional Blindness’?
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No, I think that is the same thing that makes it possible for women to go through labor twice.
Had to click to enbiggen to be sure, but you have a light board for your gravatar-very nice!
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Yes MiG– Thanks for noticing! Got a new lightboard for a local theater and had it set up on my kitchen table for a couple days…
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No, I didn’t see the gorilla, but as I was counting passes I noticed that the players were using two balls. I think the perception of color comes into play here. Dark colors tend to recede for us and light colors tend to jump out. We were instructed to look at the players wearing white shirts. Still, you’d think I’d notice a GORILLA!
This constantly happens to me at work. I’m notoriously bad at filing and acutely aware of my administrative shortcomings. My supervisor is also a terrible organizer and he needs me to be really great at it for him. He often needs something on very short notice and the instant stress this causes (Oh dear, now where did I put that?) causes me to look right past what it is that he needs. I’ve had to tell him to go away – go get the car or something – while I look for whatever it is. He’s always nice about it. I think stress might have something to do with not being able to see the thing that is right in front of my nose. That and floaters. I have floaters.
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I agree that stress, like a time deadline, makes it harder to find things that are right under my nose.
Floater – that little black spot that makes you think you have a dust mote in your eye? Drives me nuts . At least it isn’t constant.
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I don’t have a black spot – it’s a squiggle, like a skinny paramecium. Left eye. Had it for years.
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I have the squiggles too, but I also have grayish-brown fuzzy blobs – one of which is smack dab in the center of my right eye. No matter where I look there’s a gray blob in front of what I see. My mom told me (optimistically) that when I finally have cataract surgery the floaters will go away. Oh joy!
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sorry to tell you, Krista i W that i’ve had both eyes done and there are still floaters. mine is a shower curtain and a red blood cell. a great big one 🙂 but the fuzziness is gone and vision is a lots better. can see those floaters better too!
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You had to mention floaters and make me aware of them. In revenge, here: you are now aware of your tongue!!
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When watching a magician, never look where he tells you to look.
Never buy a new car past the age of 65; you cannot find anything.
Always become thoroughly familiar with the controls of a rental car before you drive out of the lot: Did an all-day presentation in the Cities; flew to Detroit and then to Pittsburgh. Drove 40 miles east to Greensburg, getting there at 11:05. Had not had supper. Only place with its lights on was Burger King. Went to the door; found it locked. The staff inside saw me shrugged their shoulders and turned off the outside lights. Turned around and slipped on the ice, landed across a curb, and, as I later found out, cracked three ribs. Went to bed hungry and barely slept for the pain. Got up at 6 and did a planning meeting with a leadership team from 7 to 10. Drove back to Pittsburgh to fly to three-day workshop in Wichita. Flew to Detroit. Flew to Kansas City. Flew to Wichita; landed about 9:50, barely time to pick up the rental car. Drove across town to motel, which was very busy so I had to park over in the dark. Pulled the keys out of the ignition and sat back to relax for a moment. But then in the dark I could not find the door handle, the interior light switch or the right key to put in the ignition I could not find. Beth, who had flown in earlier, saw me coming in and came out to help me, but the door was locked. Finally found the door handle. Beth was laughing her head off because an hour or so earlier she had picked up the rental car and pulled out on the main street from the airport. A police car pulled her over in a fairly dark spot for changing lanes without signaling. As he came up to the car, she could not find how to open the window (it had a power button she could not find). So she was opening the door. He yelled at her not to open the door but the window. Over the sound of the trucks streaming by, she tried to explain that she did not know how to. He figured it out looking at her face and let her open the door and he poked the button because he was used the make and model she was driving. He let her off but told her to get thoroughly used to the car before driving out of the lot.
I am proud to say that neither Beth nor I learned the lesson.
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LOL, Clyde, except for the pain from the broken ribs!
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Agreed; fun story Clyde… one of those that makes us shake our heads because we’ve done it too.
And yes, sorry for the frustration and broken ribs!
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I was stopped by a cop for the first time in my life last winter. I had a loaner car while mine was being repaired. The cop told me that I was driving without my lights on (in the dark) to which I exclaimed, “But don’t they just go on when I start the car?!!” I’ve never owned a car that didn’t do this “for” me. He snarled back that if I didn’t know how to operate the car, I shouldn’t be driving it. He even refused to help me out by showing me how to do this. Bastard. I ended up having to call the garage guy for this information.
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One of the most enjoyable parts of my job is the consulting that I do in Head Start classrooms. The teachers appreciate having a new “eye” to observe and alert them to problems they fail to notice. These are really great and dedicated teachers, but even they know that they don’t see everything that’s going on. It’s pretty amazing how even three year olds can fly just under the radar with heinous deeds that no one notices.
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Oh boy, I wish I could’ve had you in my kindergarten room when I had 40 kids…
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These are classsrooms with 16 children and 4 staff. I can’t imagine having 40 5 to 6 year olds all by myself. That’s crazy!
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I told another substitute teacher that I thought the class size for early elementary grades should be less than 30. She said she always had more than 40 when teaching on mitltary bases and apparently thought that was okay. I’m sure she had more skill than I have at handling large classes. I was able to give more individual attention in smaller classes. For the larger classes I was mostly doing crowd control.
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Mine was a parochial school, and appalled as I was when I learned what my class size would be, I was told to be thankful, it had been 50 in years past, and 60 before that! Can you imagine 50 or 60 kindergarteners?? You’d just have to strap them down in the chairs!
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Calling it Inattentional Blindness makes it sound like a negative, but I’m kind of envious of those of you who can focus that intently on something. It probably serves you well in the work world. You are probably also the kind of people who are good at meditation and yoga. I don’t have that kind of focus. To paraphrase John Prine, my mind’s on a bus that goes all over town.
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He’s got a great way of putting things, doesn’t he?
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Would that this were the case, Linda! I’m kind of surprised I didn’t see it, because my mind is usually on that bus!
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My college advisor used to work for NASA designing instrument panels so that astronauts would notice important warning lights and signals. Those are things I sure wouldn’t want to miss if I were in outer space. When you think about it, there is quite a bit of complexity in making sure we notice things like traffic signals, buttons on intrument panels, etc.
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Renee, as a parent currently teaching a teenager to driver, I am amazed that there is so much out on the roads that we experienced drivers take for granted. How did any of us ever learn to drive? My parents must be saints!
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I am the opposite of Joanne right now–she is being trained and I am training my replacement, so I am busy all day long except for the lunch break to write my long post. Doing it on Gotomeeting, which is actually better for computer training than face to face, at least for us.
This is one of your best, Dale. Great research. This topic has long fascinated me. One way to define education is learning to see what you are trained to see and not seeing everything like you did at four. I have a Scion. I bumped on the four way flasher in my garage and it took my forever to find it, down by the shift lever, as I recall.
Back to training, or preparing for tomorrow.
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Clyde – I’m not sure which is harder — being the trainer or the trainee. I’m going to go with the trainer being the more difficult task. At this point, I can claim ignorance or promptly forgetting what I just learned because my brain is too full of new information. Wishing you well as you start your journey toward retirement!
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At my age you cannot train me on anything. I go into info overload.
The problem with training is that I do not know what I know, if you get my drift, sort of related to Dale’s topic. It’s all the exceptions and the confusions and the errors that can arise, the randomness that I am trying to remember and explain, and there the fact that I do things I do not know why, in the protocol, and aspects of the technology I do not understand, which arises as we work.
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