National Geographic: Test Your Brain Episode 1 - Pay Attention

Episode 1: Pay Attention<br />Designed to test your memory, the first episode presents viewers with a mock-up crime scene. In a New York park, a man is mugged in broad daylight. Test your Brain: You Won't Believe Your Eyes But can you describe the robbery seconds later? And will your description be the same as that of the person next to you? Discover how details often go missing, forcing the brain to 'make up' memories. So what you believe to be true could actually be alarmingly false.

This is a test of your attention. You have

five seconds to choose one of these cards and memorize it.

Time's up!

Time's up. Now stare at the red poker chip

while we read your mind and remove the card that you picked.

Look carefully and your card is gone!

So why did you fall for this trick?

It has everything to do with your brain's brilliance

and its flaws.

This program is all about your brain and your ability to pay attention.

We're going to mess with your mind.

We're going to put you through a series of tests

to see how well you can focus.

You'll be tricked,

distracted.

and amazed.

One, two, three, five, six.

And you may just emerge your better master of your mind.

So pay attention.

What is attention?

It's your brain's most powerful tool to make sense

of a busy world and streamline the thousands of things a day

competing for your time and energy.

Scientists are finally beginning to understand

exactly what attention is and how it takes shape in the brain.

And it's your attention you have to blame if you were

stumped by the card trick.

Look again. Do you still remember your card?

It's highly likely that you were so focused on memorizing it,

you didn't noticed that all of the cards were changed.

In this program, we're going to test

your attention with eleven more mind games

to get inside your brain and then attempt to show you what's going on in there.

What better place to do this than

in the attention-grabbing city of Las Vegas?

Many of the world's leading experts on attention can be found in Vegas.

But they're not scientists. They're magicians.

As an illusionist, we take the brain and take all the concepts that people have

and use them to turn the world upside down.

If you can take their attention to another place, willingly

then you have done your job correctly.

Now pay close attention to what my friend Apollo

is about to show in my warehouse.

I'm going to show you something that's not completely... legal.

Amazing! But did you happen to notice all the things that have changed

since the scene began?

Action!

I'm going to show you something that's not completely legal.

While your attention was focused on the money, the table turned to a stool

Apollo magically got a new hat and handkerchief.

And all the posters and cards in the background changed.

Your brain's just playing a trick on you.

We all think we're paying close attention to the world around us.

But strange as it may sound, this is just an illusion.

Misdirection is an elegant form of attention control.

Our brains only allow us to really focus on one thing at a time.

So, when we have you decyphering the mystery down here

another mystery can be happening back here.

So, did you miss the eight things that changed

throughout the scene? Don't feel bad if you were fooled.

Since you can't pay attention to everything at once

your brain has to prioritize what it condiders to be most important.

Attention is like mental currency.

And psychologists like Dan Simons know your brain has to choose carefully when to spend it.

Attention is what we focus on in our visual environment.

It allows us to select some aspect of the world to be seen

and others to be ignored or filtered out of awareness

For over 20 years Simons has been studying the brain's inability to keep track of

changes. A concept known as "change blindness".

Change blindness is the failure to notice surprising and large change from one moment to the next.

When we look at our world we take in a far smaller subset of it then we think we do

And that's because attention is limited.

We really only focus attention on one thing at a time.

And that thing is what we really process in a lot of detail and become aware of.

At this very moment you may feel like you're taking in everything that's happening in front of you.

But you're not.

Your brain runs on just 12 watts of power,

less than a third of the amount a refridgerator light bulb uses.

With such limited energy, your brain is hardwired with countless shortcuts

to essentialize the world.

Since it can begin to process everything around you, it's evolve to focus on what counts.

These distinct parts, called the Prefrontal Cortex and the Parietal Lobe,

act as switching stations for signals from other areas throughout your brain.

allowing you to shift your attention from the poker chip to the wall colour to your hands.

In some ways your attention works like a spotlight.

A narrow beam provide you with the very detailed image.

A broader beam gives you the big picture but makes it harder to keep track of all the facets of the scene.

Watch Dan closely in this next explanation of how attention works.

Attention acts to amplify your process of perception.

to allow you to take in those vivid details you want to focus on.

and as a result we only notice changes to those aspects that work

within this spotlight of your attention.

So did you notice his shirt change?

Of course you did.

But that's the point.

When the change affects what you're paying attention to

you're very likely to spot it.

Here's another example.

Take a look at this image.

We're going to alterate 5 times.

Count the number of changes you see.

So, hopefully you spotted the 5 changes.

Now we'll try it again with a new image.

But this time we're going to put a second of black between each still.

Try to count the number of changes you see.

That one was quite a bit harder.

There were actually 7 different changes.

Let's take out the black frames and run it again.

This is a variation of a test created by the psychologist Ronald Rensing

and it gives remarkable insight, as to how much of the world you're missing

at any given moment.

The flicker test suggests that when you're sitting in a casino

you're paying so little attention to what's around you

dozens of details in the scene could be altered and you wouldn't be likely to notice.

If you still don't believe this would affect you in your day-to-day life

then take a look at this next test.

Dan Simons is setting up at a counter where a receptionist will greet people

eager to participate in a television event.

He'll have a conversation with the volunteers to see how aware they are of their surroundings.

I've got a form. Let me just grab you a pen.

Alright here we go. So basically all this is is a release form.

So, have you noticed anything strange so far?

In case you haven't, here's a look at the same scene from a different angle.

I got a form, let me just grab you a pen

Alright.

Alright, here we go.

If you spotted the switch you may be surprised to find out you're in the minority.

Now let's see just how many people who approach the desk were aware of the attempted deception.

Hey what's up buddy how you doing.

I just need you to fill this release form, please.

Let me grab you a pen.

Ok, here we go.

Go ahead just sign and date it.

So where you from?

New Jersey.

How are you doing today?

Great how are you?

Real good, real good.

Ahh I just need you to fill this release form. Let me grab you a pen, okay.

Ok, here we go.

Ah let me just grab you a pen for this.

Ok.

You're making me sign a waiver for this huh?

Alright here wo go. Yea absolutely

Laughter

None of the next three people noticed the switch.

Hello.

It is difficult to believe that our brains are easily fooled.

-What's your name? -Eva. E-V-A.

How you could possibly not notice the person you're talking to changing mid conversation?

Can you describe the person who was here behind the counter?

He had dark hair. I think he had a black shirt on, but I'm not sure.

Alright, can you stand up?

Oh, my God, it was him!

Laughter

You don't recognize him though?

No, I've never seen you before.

Ok. He was actually here behind the counter when you first came to the counter.

He's the one who said I'm gonna duck down and get you a pen.

Oh, my God, are you serious? Well, that's totally embarassing!

The reason we don't notice changes like this, is because we're not expecting them to occur.

In a world where backgrounds don't suddenly switch, objects don't spontaneously appear

and people don't morph into other people, our brains aren't prepared to notice

when these things do happen.

Oh my god!

Didn't even notice it.

-Man!

You didn't catch that? -I didn't catch that at all.

So, do you think you would have noticed the swap if you'd been there?

-Sure. -Yes. -Absolutely.

Most people answer yes, but Dan's data suggest that only 1 in 3 would spot the switch.

Eh, what's your name?

There's another guy that's underneath the table

You're not the person that bent down to get the pen.

Someone else popped up.

The takeaway of this experiment is not just that we miss these

sorts of changes , but that we think we're going to notice them.

And that illusion of attention is something

that plays a role in a lot of aspects of our lives.

Amazingly, we miss these sorts of changes every single day.

In trivial scenarios, like asking the wrong waiter for the bill,

or in more serious situations, like when failing to notice

big changes in the language of a lease agreement.

And in extreme cases where a person mixes up which suspect in a lineup

committed a crime.

Uh let me grab you a pen.

So we see less of the world that we think we do.

But just how much are we capable of missing?

What if these sorts of changes were not happening accross a counter

but inside your personal space?

Do you think you'd notice?

Apollo Robbins is a slight-of-hand expert.

I'm going to show you something that's not completely legal.

Apollo knows how to deceive by understanding how you misperceive.

And he uses that knowledge to steal things.

Here's a little game if you don't mind if I try

Apollo is about to pick this man's pockets and steal several of his possessions.

Pay close attention and take note of which items you see him steal.

Alright, out of the things you have inside, which would you say

is the most valuable? The thing that you have inside of your pocket or the gum down below?

Uhh pocket.

Pocket- okay.

Not this pocket, but the inside pocket.

Yea this has my wallet.

Alright man move this so I can take a peak.

-Yea

Inside here?

Is your wallet like a bifold leather, or what is it?

Yea, bifold.

Would you bring it out for me? Is there anything inside this pocket?

Or is that a real pocket as well?

- No there's nothing inside there

Okay so just stay. I'll step over here so you can bring it out for me as well

and check your front pocket here? Did you have something inside?

Uh yeah. Phone charger.

So put these back in a safe place

- Okay. That should be how I have it.

There is something here. You don't mind if I bring this out in public, do you? - No go ahead

Yea I believe it's really strange, it's a bit odd perhaps you picked that up down below

I'm just gonna put it here somewhere where it's safe.

And the charger was in your front left pocket? Or your back right?

Front left.- Front left. Do you remember that exactly?

He's already stolen 3 items. Did you see him take them?

Apollo is going to steal one more thing from this man

but first he's going to give back the 3 items he's already taken.

We had all these other items I believe, that's not your scarf perhaps but you had

one as well, didn't you? A pocket scarf?

- Ahh man.

It's cold too you should get one of these it's really nice. I believe that's for you sir

just as a gift.

I think we got everything back to you, didn't we?

- Yea yea.

Where-where was that credit card at? -This was in my wallet that was in here.

Show me where it was inside your wallet just so we can make sure that you have everything else.

My wallet's not here. -Oh, you don't have your wallet?

No, you took it. -I'm sorry, perhaps. May I bring that out for a second?

I believe down by your front pocket I believe, was that something of yours?

Oh that was it- and put that back by the front pocket as well.

So you have everything else?

- Yes.

Good. I'm sorry. I forget to give things back sometimes so that was very kind of you.

I have my phone charger

No but you do have your phone in case you're missing something else.

- My phone!

Thank you. Officially off duty now.

Alright, thank you thank you. - My pleasure

Nice to meet you too.

How many of the four things were you able to count?

Here's a quick inventory of what was taken.

A handkerchief, a scarf, a wallet and a mobile phone.

This is how Apollo stole each item.

Here's a little game if you don't mind if I try

out of the things that you have inside, which would you say is the most valuable?

The thing that you have inside your pocket

Let's check your front pocket here, did you have something inside?

You don't mind if I bring this out in public, do you?

So you have everything else.

Officially off duty now.

So what does all this got to do with the brain?

Oh my god!

Apollo is manipulating the brain's ability to focus.

It looks a lot like your watch, doesn't it?

Let's take a look at how that works.

Drumroll

There are many ways in which your attention can be manipulated.

Often these manipulations rely on two basic types of attention that form in your brain.

First, there's what scientists refer to as top-down attention

This is your decision-making attention.

Take a second to look away from your screen to the nearest doorway.

You have made a conscious choice to look away using your decision-making attention.

Next, there's the second kind of attention.
phone ringing

You can hear the phone ringing,
phone ringing
and if you thought even for a second

that it was your phone, you used what scientists call

bottom-up attention, where something grabs your focus.

When you looked over to the doorway, you were using the area of your brain

known as Prefrontal Cortex, and it's specially involved in humans to help us out

with advanced decision making and planning.

phone ringing

If the sound of the phone attracted your attention, you were using a more primitive

responsee system throughout the area of your brain called the Sensory Cortices.

In these and other regions unexpected stimuli from your senses can be quickly rooted to grab your focus.

When Apollo takes a wallet or steals a watch, he utilizes both forms of his victims' attention to deceive.

This actually looks a little bit like your room key, doesn't it?

- Oh that's right!

Distracting people can be quite simple. Here I used the top-down distraction.

Sometimes all it takes is telling someone to focus on one place

while you quietly remove their watch off their wrist.

When I need to steal from a difficult spot

I like to use a bottom-up attention strategy to direct the focus.

The surprise of the spoon completely captivates him while I steal his phone

Who's Lily?

What's most impressive about Apollo's tricks is that even if you know how they work

he'll still be able to fool you.

As we've seen, our attention is extremely limited. And keeping track

of a mobile phone, wallet, scarf and handkerchief at the same time

can be too much for our brains to handle.

- Oh man aha

- It was a pleasure.

To demonstrate how difficult it can be to keep track of more than one thing

illusionist David Copperfield has a simple experiment.

Let's put your brain to the test.

You're going to multitask. Do two things at once.

Now, count how many times you see my picture and name on the screen, and at the same time

listen to my voice and count how many times you hear the word 'magic'.

Pay attention. Here we go.

What's magic about magic, is that some magic fools your eyes

while other magic fools your brain. A magic of attention is responsible

for some of magic's most impressive illusions. A lot of magic is quite easy to perform

while other magic can be quite difficult to pull off.

But that's magic.

Harder than you thought?

How many times did I say 'magic'?

bell rings

How many times did you see my picture and my name?

bell rings

So, are you a good multi-tasker?

How many things do you think you could do simultaneously?

Despite the fact many of us believe we are successfully multi-tasking

much of the time, it turns out most of us aren't any good at it.

Professor David Strayer's research has shown we generally aren't the multi-taskers

we may think we are. Realisticaly, we can really only process one thing at a time.

Were effectively, serial processors when we're doing one task at a time.

Staryer co-runs a lab at the University of Utah that studies how multitasking affects the brain.

When we try to multi-task, we're just switching from one activity to another.

Switching involves deactivating your or paying attention to one task so you can process the other task and switching back and forth.

So is anyone a good multi-tasker?

This is Petrus Venter. He believes he can do several things at once,

while doing them all effectively. So Petrus is going to be put to the test.

I'm the CEO of a group of companies

My feeling is that I can focus on whatever issue is at hand

I have to be able to deal with many things simultaneously.

In terms of multi-tasking, that I can do perfectly.

At the top of his list of commitments, a wife and two children.

He is very good multi-tasker, cause he has to answer to e-mails, talk with clients,

talk with us, uh, eat.

It's terrifying being in a car with him.

He grips the steering wheel with his knees. Texting or emailing.

It's always been like this and I think it's getting worse.

It's time to find out whether Petrus really is the multi-tasker he says he is.

Today he is meeting up with Professor Strayer to put his multi-tasking skills to the test.

In a familiar scenario, talking on the phone while driving.

I almost feel disconnected if I don't have my ear buds in.

They normally stay in there for all of my life.

phone rings

Petrus. Oh, distractions are limited, I'm ready for your call.

- So, how much snow has there been here?

We've had over 155 inches.

He's given two tasks to deal with. Petrus must answer a series of basic questions,

and at the same time drive a uniquely challenging course.

His multi-tasking skills are being put to the test with many distractions.

- How do you get to your place from Salt Lake?

While he's asked a series of basic questions over the phone,

he must guide his car around a variety of obstacles.

From Salt Lake you-you have to follow the belt route

And uhh- ouu ehhh. Hahaha!

- So, when did you start using your headset on the road?

I was doing work with a-for a company

They uh-

This is a lot.

And uh-

Well-

Petrus performed far worse than he expected.

Now doctor Strayer is taking Petrus back to the lab for the second part of the test

designed to give a concrete rating of his multi-tasking ability.

We have a driving simulator. We'll have to do some cognitive tasks while you're driving

People who claim to be super-taskers can do that cognitive task and drive

without impairments to either the cognitive task or to driving. So, you wanna try being a super tasker?

Absolutely. I'd like to see.

This test simulates the conditions of driving while talking on the phone.

Petrus will have two tasks to carry out while driving.

Solving a series of maths problems while memorizing a list of words.

The test is designed to be more demanding than the average phone conversation

so doctor Strayer can track how much Peter's performance suffers at each task.

- Excellent.

phone rings

I'm gonna ask you a series of math problems and I'll give you a short word to remember after each problem.

I'm gonna ask you to recall all the words in the order that you heard them in.

So, are you ready to begin? Yes.

Sitting at home, it's not possible to do the driving task

but have a go in completing the math's task and memorizing the words to test

your own ability to multi-task.

Is 3 divided by 1, minus 1, equal to 2?

Yes.

Ice.

Is 2 times 2 plus 1 equal to 4?

No.

Owl.

Is 9 times 2 plus 2 equal to 20?

Uh, yes.

Toy.

Recall.

Ice, uh skip, um-no, the last one was toy.

Ok.

Petrus is unable to recall all of the simple words.

The word he was looking for is 'owl'.

You may have forgotten the word too, but this is an extremely difficult test

and you're not driving while doing it.

With the test complete, doctor Strayer is ready to give Petrus the answer

as to how he ranks as a multi-tasker.

Well, the good news is you're just like 98% of the rest of the people.

For driving performance, you got worse when you started to multi-task

and the conversation task got worse when you were multi-tasking as well.

I think I'll put the cell phone a bit further away.

Haha thank you.

Excellent. Thanks a lot. It's been a most fun day.

Okay good.

Despite Petrus' conviction that he's an efficient multi-tasker his final scores turned out to be about average.

If, like Petrus, you are among the vast majority of people who can't excel at doing two things at once,

what does this mean for the multi-tasking you do in your day-to-day life?

Take a look at the example of being on the phone while driving.

Talking on a cell phone causes that form of attention blindness, where people look

but just don't see information in the driving environment.

They might miss the pedestrian, the traffic light.

Many countries have now banned hand-held mobile phone usage. It's clear to see why.

The likelihood of getting into a crash while you're talking on a cell phone, is the same as getting into a crash

um when you're driving at a .08 blood alcohol level.

For someone who's text messaging the crash risk is twice that.

As further proof that we all have a one-track mind, Apollo has another trick.

Try to catch how he does it, while still paying close attention to what he has to say.

I get asked all the time: Where is the safest place to keep your stuff?

The answer's really not that simple.

A little bit more involved, you have to get inside the mind of a thief.

And to do that, I'm gonna show you how.

You have to understand their target.

They're looking for brands, looking for the type of watch that you wear

they're looking for your cash and they're looking for your phone.

All of these things are quite valuable, but it's important where you can hide them.

When you're travelling here's a simple thing to do. You can get a cup.

It acts a portable safe. Put all your valuables inside, put a lid on top

You need a little bit of a convincer, something that- it's a nice touch sometimes

to use something simple like a straw

You put the straw on top, it convinces them the cup might be empty

and if they want to rob you, they wouldn't find anything on you

and they'd probably leave you with your trash.

But the nice things is you'd still have all your valuables

And at the end you'd have a nice refreshing beverage.

Did you follow Apollo's actions?

And did you see the rabbit, the gorilla and the bear?

Performer Apollo Robbins just turned his keys, wallet and mobile phone into a cold, fizzy drink

while three people in animal costumes walked directly behind him

- Nice refreshing
ding

You can get a cup
ding

You have to understand
ding

Did you notice them?

You may have noticed the rabbit, but chances are you didn't catch all three.

Why is that?

Is it for the same reason that it's unlikely you spotted the background change

in Apollo's first trick? Or the objects that appeared in the flicker test?

Those tricks relied on breaks in your visual memory that it caused you to lose

track of details in the scene.

Once those breaks were removed, the changes became obvious.

In this scene there were no breaks. But it's likely you still missed something.

This is because of a different neurological phenomenon, called inattentional blindness.

Inattentional blindness is a failure to notice something unexpected

when your attention is really focused tightly on something else.

So we can often fail to see something that's fully obvious, right there in front of us if we're not looking for it.

It's a side-effect of something that we do quite well, which is to focus attention.

And filter out all the irrelevant distractions, a consequence of that is

we sometimes filter out things we might actually want to see.

At any given moment, your brain is being bombarded with countless stimuli

such as images, sounds and smells.

These regions are some of your Sensory Cortices. Here, networks of neurons process

the many stimuli coming in from your sense organs.

These neurons work with nerves and other regions of your brain that prioritize the stimuli.

making only the most important ones the object of your focus.

One result of this sensroy triage, is that every moment millions of stimuli

go completely unprocessed. And rabbits, gorillas and bears

can walk through your field of vision completely unnoticed.

Your brain is remarkably good at filling in these cognitive blind spots to create

a seemless version of reality.

Here's a quick test to illustrate exactly that.

Read this sentence aloud.

It seems incredible that we're still able to read it.

Once your brain decyphers what's important, it fills in the rest of the scene

with whatever your expectation suggests would be there.

All of us experience these sorts of failures of awareness all the time and the key is that we're not aware of them.

So you're only aware of those things that you do notice, you're not aware of all of the things you miss.

It's a tricky concept to get your head around.

How can you grasp how much of the world you're missing, when there's no way of knowing

what it is that you've missed?

We need to simplify the idea.

Dan Simons is teaming up with the dance group 'Jabbawockeez'

to conduct an experiment to work out just how susceptible we are to inattentional blindness.

It's similar to a test he's done before, using recorded video footage.

But tonight he's trying it out with a live audience for the first time.

Thank you all for coming in. We've got the Jabbawockeez here

and, what we're going to do is have them do a couple of their routines.

So here's what were gonna have you do. Any time one of Jumper Walkies wearing blue

steps into either of the spotlights, keep track of that.

So, if they do this, that's one. Step out, step back in: that's two.

That makes sense? -Yeah.

So, I'm gonna have the Jabbawockeez come back out here

The counting exercise will help focus your attention

Try doing this test along with the audience.

Remember you need to keep track of the number of times the blue Jabbawockeez

step into the spotlights.

All right. So, how many people counted between 15 to 20?

More than 20?

All right. One other question. Did anybody see a penguin?

Can we have our penguin friend come back out?

Dan Simons reveals there was an extra character on the stage

that you and the live audience may not have seen.

So you didn't notice that when it went through.

Let's take another look.

For anyone that still missed it, you're not alone.

How many people didn't see the penguin go through?

Over 50 percent of the audience did too.

I spotted it when it was in the middle.

I did not spot it at all.

I saw only what I was looking right at the circle.

I was concentrating on the circles and counting the people coming in and out.

Did you fee pretty accurate? -Oh, yeah.

Ok. So you felt like getting close enough.

If you didn't notice the penguin going through, don't feel bad.

This is nothing about how intelligent you are, how much effort you are engaging

It turns out that about half of the people miss these sorts of unexpected events in the studies that I've done.

Do any of you happen to ride motorcycles?

The most common kind of motorcycle collision with a car is one in which the car turns left in front of the motorcycle.

And driver of the car is looking for other cars.

And they literally don't see the motorcycle.

Even though they can direct their eyes right at it.

Just as you were looking right at this six foot penguin.

As you can see, your brain's filter is powerful enough to cause you

to miss large features in your environment.

Usually, this automatic filtering of distractions makes life a lot simpler.

But there are some situations where you'd be better off with more conscious control

of your attention spotlight.

You're about to see a list of coloured words.

As they appear, say the font colour of which word aloud as quickly as you can.

Here are some examples.

The font colour of this word is red.

Here it is green. And this one blue. So here it goes.

Now try the test again with one small change.

Remember you're calling out the font colours.

Here we go.

On that one, it could take people 50 percent longer to say each colour.

This is called the 'Stroop effect', and it relies on interfering signals in your brain

that compete for your attention.

It's thought that colour s processed here in a path way known as the Ventral Stream.

While the act of reading seems to be performed in other areas

throughout the Occipital and Temporal Lobes.

Here your attention filter is unable to dampen the brain's instinct

to read the word itself and naming the font colour becomes difficult.

It's an issue you probably encounter daily, when your brain's automatic functions

interfere with your ability to perform.

Here's a quick example.

The common wisdom on your golf swing is 'Don't overthink it'.

Your best swing is something your body performs automatically.

relying on finely tuned muscle movements organised in the area of your brain

known as the Motor Cortex.

Worrying about the details of your swing, creates additional signals in various areas of your brain

which interfere with the regions that know your best swing by heart.

So, there's a problem. How can you turn off your brain's automatic efforts

to adjust your swing?

Neuroscientist Amir Raz is a professor at McGill University,

who studies how attention forms in the brain by researching a method of attention manipulation.

Hypnosis.

It's a bit chilly in here, you may have noticed. But we're going to overcome it.

Doctor Raz has found that through hypnosis some people can fine tune their attention

by shuting down automatic signals that arise throughout areas of the brain.

I'd like to establish some kind of relaxation protocol.

Let's start from the breathing. Inhale, one, hold, two, hold, three, hold, close your eyes and exhale.

Good.

Very good.

Every time you exhale you get even more relaxed.

Today he's working with Vegas' local Ali Ingrom into an ice bar to see if hypnosis

is a powerful enough tool to convince her she's burning hot in the sub-freezing temperatures.

When we are talking about hypnosis we are referring to situations where people

can push their common everyday attention into an extreme dimension

where attention can actually regulate and modulate their higher brain functions

their emotions, their facts and their actions.

If the hypnosis works, Alie should be able to override input of her brain

that's trying to get her attention and tell her she's cold.

Sleepy and drowsy. Very sleepy and very drowsy. Very good.

Ok, we're all set. We're nice and relaxed.

Now, notice something extreme that's happening. It's happening from within.

You are generating heat.

It's hot. You are getting hot. More and more hot.

And as you're getting more and more hot, you can feel that you need to disrobe a little bit.

Just do whatever you need to do to feel more comfortable.

It's hot. It's really hot.

As this heat wave is sort of coming over you, as you feel hot

I'm gonna apologize. It's not something I can control, but not working the air-conditioning in here

You know, it's not enough. Take all these layers off. It's so deep, it's at the core level.

That seemed to work, but Dr. Raz goes further.

It's beginning to get colder again.

We don't want to freeze out here.

Now he wants to see if Alie is capable of turning off other areas of her brain

to forget something she's known since childhood.

The number four.

The concept of 'four'. We're going to temporarily erase it from your mind.

All right. Alie can you count for me and point to my fingers as you count?

One, two, three, five, six, seven, eight, nine, ten, eleven.

What's going on? -You have eleven fingers.

Obviously, I don't, right?

Dr Amir Raz has helped Alie temporarily erase the number four from her mind using hypnosis.

Let me just show one hand.

One, two, three, five, six.

Is this possible?

I wouldn't have thought so.

How many wheels to a car? -Three.

How many wheels to a tricycle? -Three.

Can you sound out the word f-o-u-r to me? Just sound it out? -....

Fo-we-er.

What does that mean? -I have no idea.

Have you heard that before? -Seems vaguely familiar.

When Dr.Raz is done Alie can give back function to the areas of her brain

she's turned off and regain access to the number four.

Alie was able to suppress and create brain signals to achieve these tasks.

Dr Raz is heading back to his lab, at McGill University,

to see if under hypnosis one of his students can improve her performance on a test we've seen before.

I'm gonna count to ten, and you're gonna get more and more sleepy as I speak to you.

One, two... Every time you exhale you can feel you're getting deeper.

Remember this test, where switching the colours of the words

made identifying the font colours more difficult.

Slowly and gently, calmly.. Raz is putting his student under hypnosis

to see if she can suppress her brain's attempts to read the words

allowing her to identify the font colours more quickly.

That's right. Very good.

To do this, he has to ask her to forget how to read English.

You're gonna have all kinds of symbols appearing on the screen

These symbols are gonna be in a foreign language that you don't know.

But they're gonna be inked in all kinds of different colours.

And, what I'd like you to do, is I'd like you to as quickly and as accurately as you can

just respond by telling me the ink colour. Ok?

Open your eyes.

Here's a laptop. And I'm gonna put it in your lap, just like that

What ink colour is this? -Green. Red. Yellow. Blue. Red.

Great.

Dr. Raz has carried out this test many times to find that under hypnosis people are much faster

than average at calling out the colours.

People under the hypnotic suggestion they're able to dampen down, to a degree, the quality of what they're seeing

and they're getting the colour through but not the meaning of the word.

His research suggests that through practices such as hypnosis and meditation

you can begin to rewire your brain and increase your ability to focus

boosting your performance at everyday tasks.

I'm gonna show you something that's not completely... legal.

But don't forget that if you missed the penguin, the rabbit or the person swap

your brain was simply doing what it does best.

Giving your full attention to what's important and ignoring what's not.

Which brings us to the final question.

At the beginning of the show, you were asked to pay attention.

Did you?

It's been an interesting ride, hasn't it? Should we play a game?

If I show you a stack of pictures, would you be able to tell me which ones were from the show

and which ones are merely a distraction?

So, what's the answer? Yes, or no?

I guess it depends on if you knew the question.

Did you see the question?

You just saw the four brains didn't you?

So your attention is improving.

In fact you probably saw all the oddly placed brains throughout the whole show. Didn't you?

Red.- Great

So if I they do this, that's one. Step out, step back in, that's two.

It's terrifying being in a car with him.

It's always been like this and I think it's getting worse.

Can you stand up?

Oh my god it was him!

Oh that's totally embarassing.

So, I guess it's true. It's not what you look at, it's what you see.