Our Occasional Inability to Notice What’s in Front of Us
KEY POINTS
- Many of us exaggerate the classic 1999 invisible-gorilla effect as the norm, but most participants saw the gorilla.
- A new study places this effect into a larger list of cases in which drivers and radiologists miss what’s in front of them.
- It’s possible to raise the alarm about the consequences of such blindness without overstating the actual frequency of mistakes.
The award-winning study on this topic by Simons and Chabris (1999) led to a best-selling book called The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us.
(Chabris and Simons, 2009). The “invisible gorilla” refers to the 1999 result as a case of “inattentional blindness” in which some participants didn’t recall seeing someone in a gorilla suit right in front of them while they focused on the passing of basketballs.
An Updated Review: “Normal Blindness”
In recent years, public attention to the gorilla effect has died down. But a new study by Wolfe and colleagues (July 21, 2022) has brought the not-so-invisible gorilla back into the news (Carroll, 2022; Pearson, 2022). Wolfe and colleagues reviewed the gorilla effect and more recent results, proposed a single framework to cover all such effects, and coined a new name for our occasional oversight: “normal blindness.”
The authors wrote that “humans routinely miss important information that is “right in front of our eyes,” from overlooking typos in a paper to failing to see a cyclist in an intersection.” Although it’s true that humans have visual limitations, terms like “normal” and “routinely” raise my previous question about overgeneralizing. Wolfe and colleagues first reviewed the classic invisible-gorilla study. They reported that “about 50 percent” missed the gorilla, again overlooking that the percentage was actually lower in real-life conditions. In another initial example, people looked for a T in a series of L’s and missed the T 5-10 percent of the time, which does not really rise to a “routine” level."
Read the full available article at Psychology Today
Reflection: Have you ever missed something that's right infront of your eyes?
If you got some time to spare you can watch this Youtube video, and tell me your impressions of it!
#GorillaEffect #Blindness #RightBeforeOurEyes
@professionalVision2624 I tend to miss things when I'm preoccupied with something else. Like if I'm stressed or tired, I would miss certain obvious things.
@comfortableNight4463
I agree! It tends to happen to me to, especially when i'm looking for something in a hurry, and when I calm down a little I see that it has been infront of me the entire time hahaha
@professionalVision2624 Thank you for this post! There are times that I'm wondering how I don't see things that draw other people's attention. They may tell me "Oh, look there!" and it takes me a while to realize what they're pointing at! The weirdest thing is that sometimes I also observe things other people don't so it's kind of vice versa. Very interesting article!
@calmDew1576
hahaa yes I have also expereinced it when people are pointing towards something but I just can't see it. It's a weird phenomenon to expereince and there sure is a great deal of psychology behind it.
