ProDev: selective attention and the media

[Marauder06]

I'm writing an article related to selective attention, and I want to run a very un-scientific experiment as part of professional development here on the site.

At your convenience, please watch and react to this video in the comments below. Please do not read the comments until you watch the video.

This experiment has been around for a long time; if you already saw the video, please feel free to respond with what your thoughts were the first time you watched it.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

I'm writing an article related to selective attention, and I want to run a very un-scientific experiment as part of professional development here on the site.

At your convenience, please watch and react to this video in the comments below. Please do not read the comments until you watch the video.

This experiment has been around for a long time; if you already saw the video, please feel free to respond with what your thoughts were the first time you watched it.

After being told what to do by the video, I did the opposite. Instead of counting what one party did, I observed both parties and then saw the thing in the middle. I definitely failed the first instructions.

That was a good little experiment.

 

[Box]

The first time I saw it - I was in a class that had already made us do a version of "KIM's Game" that seemed to have no purposes except to give the guy an excuse to talk about how important KIMs game was. It was so unimpressive that now, I can't even remember what the class was. Only that I was underwhelmed. We were not allowed to have food or drink in the class and I was fucking dying of boredom because I wanted a cup of coffee.

I was able only to follow a few moments into the video and realized "who fucking cares" - this is stupid and has nothing to do with why I am here. I'll just say "dunno, i lost count" if they ask...
...wait, what in the fuck?
...come on - seriously?
...this class is a joke.

I couldn't believe how many people were willing to challenge that such a distraction even occurred.
How in gods name could you not see it?
Of course much like RC, the first time I saw it I wasn't really following the instructions - so my response "might" be tainted - but isn't that part of the test?
Selective attention and all that jazz.

 

[Devildoc]

16, and yes, I saw the gorilla lol.

Edited to add, in our nurse progression evaluation, we have recognized that new nurses get tunnel vision and fixated on lists: "I must do task A, then I can do task B, followed by task C..." They have not had enough experience to know when or how to triage or "riff", unable to see the macro picture. It's developmental in career progression; we do not expect them to come in and perform like seasoned nurses.

It's actually pretty well documented in our professional literature in novice to expert theory.

 

[BloodStripe]

I counted 14 passes and saw the gorilla.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

I watched this for the first time many many years ago in a management class; I did not see the gorilla. Today I watched it and focused on counting the passes, I saw the gorilla because I knew it was coming, but I could see how being so focused on counting, that even though I’d ‘see’ the gorilla coming onto the court, because it’s not what I was looking for so it did not appear out of place.

Interesting how our brains work.

 

[Ooh-Rah]

After being told what to do by the video, I did the opposite.

LOL - of course you did!

 

[Polar Bear]

I did not see the gorilla, but immediately thought these are weak passes and my 55 year old ass could steal it. I had the right count.

 

[GOTWA]

I watched about 15 seconds then started over. After starting over I was like, I should probably watch the black shirts as some type of trick. Counted 15 with the gorilla.

 

[Kaldak]

I counted 16, and saw the gorilla costume.

First time seeing this, that I can remember. I've seen other tests/scenarios that are similar, but not this particular one that I can recall.

 

[ThunderHorse]

I'm writing an article related to selective attention, and I want to run a very un-scientific experiment as part of professional development here on the site.

At your convenience, please watch and react to this video in the comments below. Please do not read the comments until you watch the video.

This experiment has been around for a long time; if you already saw the video, please feel free to respond with what your thoughts were the first time you watched it.

Counted 15...but you know they all could have been stabbed by the Gorilla!

 

[Marauder06]

Very nice!! Many of you did considerably better on this than I did the first time I watched it.

The setup when I watched for the first time was great--the instructor didn't give us a lot of time to think, he couched it as an attention experiment and was like "OK you have to do this nownownow!!!:" and also presented it as a challenge, "I bet you can't get the count right."

I got the count right but I totally missed the gorilla. In fact I didn't really believe that there was a gorilla in the video when he told us about it. Had to re-watch from the beginning.

So yes, this is an example of being hyper-focused on something that you're told to focus on, but being completely unaware of other important things going on around us.

"Someone with a writing style similar to mine" wrote an article on my blog about it, which I'm going to post both here and in the Israel thread because it directly relates to both.

Hamas, “The Invisible Gorilla,” and What the Media-Political Complex is Doing to America • The Havok Journal

 

[AWP]

I didn't count the number of passes, I stopped when I saw the gorilla because that confused me. Then I read the comments and wondered how people missed a freaking gorilla.

The first time I saw it - I was in a class that had already made us do a version of "KIM's Game" that seemed to have no purposes except to give the guy an excuse to talk about how important KIMs game was. It was so unimpressive that now, I can't even remember what the class was. Only that I was underwhelmed. We were not allowed to have food or drink in the class and I was fucking dying of boredom because I wanted a cup of coffee.

I want to make a joke about SWC, but think I'll pass.

 

[CQB]

15 & yes; my reaction was ‘oh, gorilla, interesting.’ Once I saw it, I widened my focus briefly to check if there was any other oddities & continued counting.

 

[DA SWO]

I only got 14, and wondered why a guy in a gorilla suit was there.

 

[R.Caerbannog]

LOL - of course you did!