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SCI-FUN Shows
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Perception
or "Spotting the gorilla"... Click here to go back to the Senses page We've protected this page behind a password (and a warning) to try to prevent schools (and S2 pupils) who haven't yet seen the Senses show from inadvertently finding out anything about the final film with the basketball passing and the gorilla. As those of you who have seen the clip will realise, it's not possible to experience the basketball film in the same way again, once you've seen it. Even to know that something unusual is coming up will ruin the effect: it's essential that the group being tested believe only that they're being asked to count the number of passes of the basketball between the white T-shirted trio, and to ignore the passes of those with the black T-shirts. But, of course, for those of you who have seen the clip, we can go into a little more detail about what it tells us, as well as letting you find links to the film at the originating website (to show friends and family), and links to other perception films on the same site. Selective attention: missing the gorilla... When you concentrate on one thing in your surroundings, while ignoring everything else around you, you are carrying out the process of attention. A good example is when you listen to one person talking to you in a crowded room, where lots of other conversations are going on. Selective attention is the term we use when you are concentrating on one thing (such as the people with the white t-shirts), and deliberately ignoring other distractions (the people with the black t-shirts). It's when you are carrying out selective attention that you can miss a seemingly obvious event (such as a gorilla!), if it happens to match the distractions that you're successfully ignoring. Such focusing of your attention is extremely important, since it lets you concentrate on the important tasks at hand (such as driving a car), and ignore things which would make you less able to carry out the task. Focusing does carry, the risk, however, that you'll miss important events! Click here to find other interesting films from the University of Illinois' Visual Cognition Lab.
Click here to go back to the Senses page
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