How attention works: why you can miss a gorilla in plain sight
Looking without seeing: why your eyes can land on a thing you never see
Cameras followed the eyes of people watching the famous video where a person in a gorilla suit crosses a basketball game. Many who missed the gorilla had looked straight at it. How can eyes see what the mind does not?
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Where do the eyes of people who miss the gorilla really go? Scientists played the video again, with a small camera that follows each viewer's eyes and marks every spot they land on.
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The camera showed something strange. Many of the viewers who missed the gorilla had looked straight at it, for about a second, just as long as the viewers who saw it.
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So your eyes took in the whole scene, gorilla included. What you see is only the part your attention picks from it, and yours was busy picking white shirts.
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Back at the party, Rono turns the music up and the room gets loud. Miva leans in to tell you about her bike trip, while twenty people talk around you, and somehow you will not miss a word.
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Quick check
Across a café, a friend looks straight at you and does not wave back. Did your friend see you?
Show the answer
Not for sure. Their eyes took you in, but if their attention was busy with something else, you may never have reached them.
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Go further
The tool the scientists used.