Change Blindness; you cannot be aware of everything. Your brain fails to focus on details all the time.
Change blindness allows the brain to focus on one precise thing and that’s very useful and a great survival mechanism. But since most of the time we’re not aware of what the brain focuses on, we cannot have a full picture of our daily lives; it distorts our perception constantly.
This concept explained and much more in the documentary series “Brain Story” (2000) by the extraordinary British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC). http://www.bbc.co.uk
Full description of the original documentary series:
- http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/health/837632.stm
Official “brain story” book, companion to the series:
- http://www.amazon.com/BBC-Brain-Story-Unlocking-Emotions/dp/0789478390/ref=sr_1_1/103-5064472-5130250?ie=UTF8&s=books&qid=1189084936&sr=1-1
About the author, Susan Greenfield:
- http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Susan_Greenfield
or
- http://www.sirc.org/about/susan_greenfield.html
the “whole brain atlas” online:
- http://www.med.harvard.edu/AANLIB/home.html
Duration : 0:5:56
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May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
@HarlequinByProxy I …
@HarlequinByProxy I think that black people and women would be the main groups which notice these switches. I dont know why but, hey! Neither do the scientists!
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
@sixthcrusifix Yeah …
@sixthcrusifix Yeah its kinda funny. In the part where they showed the switch from the subjects point of view, I almost didnt notice the change. I only knew a switch had happened because I had been told and shown it beforehand. Kind of spooky how my brain with me even when I know the reality..
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Alright… I think …
Alright… I think it’s just that some people give a crap and some don’t. Stick a woman infront of a guy and change her and see if the guy notices. Yeah. Some people are more observant than others, some people wanna get laid, some people (same sex) are like “WE dude, gimme the paper and get me outa here”. Heh. Plus if someone is bombarded with activity (city) all day long they will become desensitized to smaller details. I’m lacking the “Oh wow!” factor on this video.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
sounds like the …
sounds like the Monty Python narrator at the very beginning
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
notice the change …
notice the change blindness test they hid in this video, at 1:53 the professor explaining the test is wearing a red shirt, at 2:18 he is wearing a blue shirt, same room, same position
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I think the 25% who …
I think the 25% who noticed are just more interested in people. If something else obvious had changed It’d be a different group of people noticing… that dumb who went first would’ve noticed if they changed that pot with dirt in it. The dude in the hat would’ve noticed if the sign changed, the old dude… well he wasn’t lookin at shit…
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Douglas Adams!!!
Douglas Adams!!!
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I love their smiles …
I love their smiles when they’re told
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
i once was at a …
i once was at a shop and when i walked in i somehow noticed that the manikin in front of the shop was holding a yellow bag. when i came out i noticed that it was gone.
i looked around and saw a nervous guy with a hoodie. i told the the shop owner and he told this guy what he was hiding and it was the yellow bag
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
i would have …
i would have noticed it right away. not that i am super smart and allways put attention to the minutest detail… BUT BECAUSE ONE GUY WAS HOTTER THAN THE OTHER ONE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I would ask the …
I would ask the people not fooled by this experiment if they found the first experimenter pleasant or unpleasant to them. If this is so then, the attention focus here would be different.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Same – though for …
Same – though for the results to be accurate, you would not be told what is being tested – or even that anything is tested at all.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Fascinating …
Fascinating experiment ~ would like to try it myself since I’d like to think I’m usually a very observant person…
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I believe they …
I believe they designed the whole set-up so that it would be difficult to look over the guess, but from the camera angle it doesn’t look like it.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Boobs
Boobs
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
They would be …
They would be focusing on the guy.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
The desk experiment …
The desk experiment could fail, because I would have instinctively looked over the counter a little. I tend to do that, I think a lot of other people probably do also.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Definitely true.
Definitely true.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I imagine if the …
I imagine if the person saw something they admired in the guy behind the desk (i.e. they were checking him out) they would know if it was a different guy because features they were focusing on would have changed.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
@xxSeishuku It’s …
@xxSeishuku It’s something like that. It could be even something more subtle like: “This guy wears his hear just like my brother”.Or, “that colour shirt doesn’t really suit him”.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
LOL.
LOL.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I guess everybody …
I guess everybody suffers from mild face blindness.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
that usually …
that usually happens when im high
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
I think the women …
I think the women who noticed were thinking “wow, he’s cute” or something, and when the other one comes up it’s more like “he’s not cute! who is this guy?”.
May 8th, 2010 at 6:53 pm
Both of the people …
Both of the people they showed who noticed were female. I bet that if they did the same experiment with two different women, men would notice more.