Brain Games- Inattentional Blindness

NARRATOR: Apollo has
got a trick for you.

Try to catch how he does it
while still paying attention

to what he has to say.

APOLLO: I get asked all the
time, where's the safest

place to keep your stuff?

The answer is really
not that simple.

To get a little
bit more involved

you have to get inside
the mind of a thief.

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

You have to understand
their target.

They're looking for brands.

They're 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 the
way you can hide them.

When you're traveling,
here's a simple thing to do,

you can get a cup.

It acts as a portable safe.

Put all your valuables
inside, put a lid on top,

you need a little bit of
a convincer or something,

the nice touch sometimes is
just use something simple

like a straw.

You put the straw on
top, it convinces them

that the cup might be empty.

And if they were to rob you,
they wouldn't find anything

on you and they'd probably
leave you with your trash.

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

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

NARRATOR: Did you
catch how he did that?

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

APOLLO: Put all your
valuables inside--

NARRATOR: Apollo just turned
his keys, wallet, and cell phone

into a cold cup of soda, while
three costumed animals walked

directly behind him.

APOLLO: Nice, refreshing--

[TAPE REWINDING]

You can get a cup.

[TAPE REWINDING] You
have to understand.

NARRATOR: Did you see
any of these critters?

You may have noticed
the bunny, but chances

are good you didn't
catch all three, why not?

APOLLO: The answer is
really not that simple.

NARRATOR: In this scene
there were no breaks,

but you still missed something.

This is because of a different
neurological phenomenon

called inattentional blindness.

APOLLO: 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

that we might
actually want to see.

NARRATOR: 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 courtesies.

Here, networks of neurons
process the many stimuli coming

in from your sense organs.

These neurons work with nerves
in other regions of your brain

that prioritize
the stimuli, making

only the most important ones
the object of your focus.

The result of this
sensory triage, millions

of stimuli every moment
go completely unprocessed,

and bunnies, gorillas,
and bears can

walk through your field of
vision completely unnoticed.

As it turns out your
brain is remarkably

good at filling in these
cognitive blind spots

to create a seamless
version of reality.

Here's a quick test to
show you what we mean.

Read this sentence aloud.

Amazing that you can
still read it, right?

Why is that?

Once your brain decides
what's important,

it fills in the
rest of the scene

with whatever your expectations
suggest would be there.

APOLLO: All of us experience
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 you do notice.

You're not aware of all
of the things you miss.

NARRATOR: It's a tricky concept
to wrap 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?

Let's simplify this.

Dan Simons is teaming up with
the dance group Jabbawockeez

to do an experiment
to help us figure out

just how susceptible people
are to inattentional blindness.

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

But tonight, for
the first time, he's

trying it out with
a live audience.

DAN SIMONS: So thank
you all for coming in.

We've got the
Jabbawockeezs here.

And what we're going
to do is have them

do a couple of their routines.

So here's what we're
to have you do,

any time one of
the Jabbawockeez'

wearing blue steps into
either of the spotlights,

keep track of that.

So if they do this, that's one,
they step out and step back in,

that's two.

Does that make sense?

AUDIEANCE: Yeah.

DAN SIMONS: So why don't they
have the Jabbawockeez come back

out here?

NARRATOR: The counting exercise
will help focus your attention.

Try doing this test
along with the audience.

Remember, you're keeping
track of the number

of times the blue Jabbawockeez'
step into the spotlights.

[MUSIC PLAYING]

[APPLAUSE]

DAN SIMONS: All right,
so how many people

counted between 15 to 20?

More than 20?

All right, one other question,
did anybody see a penguin?

[TAPE REWINDING]

NARRATOR: A what?

DAN SIMONS: And have our
penguin friend come back out.

NARRATOR: Dan Simons just
told the live audience

about an extra character in
the Jabbawockeez' performance

they may not have seen.

DAN SIMONS: So you didn't notice
that when it went through?

NARRATOR: Let's
take another look.

[TAPE REWINDING]

[MUSIC PLAYING]

NARRATOR: For anyone that still
missed it, you are not alone.

DAN SIMONS: How
many people didn't

see the penguin go through?

NARRATOR: Over 50% of
the audience did, too.

AUDIENCE MEMBER: I spotted
it when it was in the middle.

AUDIENCE MEMBER 2: I did
not expect that at all.

AUDIENCE MEMBER 3: I
saw it when I was only

looking, like, at the circle.

AUDIENCE MEMBER 4: I was
concentrating on the circles

and counting the people
coming in and out.

DAN SIMONS: Did
you feel like you

got the count pretty accurate?

AUDIENCE MEMBER 4: Oh, Yeah.

DAN SIMONS: So OK, you felt like
you were getting close enough?

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

This says nothing about
how intelligent you are,

how much effort you're engaging.

It turns out that about
half of the people

missed 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.

A driver of a 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.

NARRATOR: 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.