General Question

luigirovatti's avatar

Did you know of the Invisible Gorilla experiment?

Asked by luigirovatti (2950points) October 11th, 2019

In this psychological assessment, subjects believed they were supposed to count passes between players on a basketball team. In actuality, they were being evaluated on something else entirely. What most subjects did not notice while tallying the tosses of the ball was that a man in a gorilla suit had walked into the court. Focusing so strongly on 1 component blinded the subjects to the big picture.

If you want to know more, read the book “The Invisible Gorilla”, or check on wikipedia:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness#Invisible_Gorilla_Test

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53 Answers

zenvelo's avatar

Yes, it was a well known video on the internet about fifteen years ago. There are valid criticisms of the video, in that the lighting and shadow made the gorilla difficult to see even when one knew about it.

flutherother's avatar

The video is still there proving its point and I was quite impressed by it.

kritiper's avatar

Do you mean “God?”
Or is this a quiz??

ucme's avatar

Ape-arrently not!

rebbel's avatar

The what experiment?

Caravanfan's avatar

We use that video often when we are teaching medicine. Medicine is always about not looking for the obvious and looking for the unexpected.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

I missed it first time. When they told me I saw it plain as day and it freaked me out that I could miss it to be honest. We use this in safety meetings to teach situational awareness.

seawulf575's avatar

I’ve seen this test before. We had it as a training session at work one time.

Dutchess_III's avatar

It has to do with what we think we see, vs what is actually there. It’s also how magicians get away with much of the stuff they do. They instruct you (or otherwise subtly suggest) that you focus on one hand, while the other does something different.

@rebbel People are given instructions to watch a section of a basket ball game and count the number of passes they can see. While they’re focusing on counting the number of passes, a man in a gorilla suit walks right out on the court and most people never even see him because they’re focused on the balls. They don’t ignore him, they literally don’t see him.
Look Here. It’s really incredible how much we miss because we’re so focused on one thing. People changing clothes, even race, and we never even notice.

flo's avatar

No one would miss the gorrila. If there is only one chance to count the number of passes most of uf us may get it wrong, but how could anyone miss the gorrila?

Caravanfan's avatar

@flo A lot of people, actually. I missed it the first time I saw it.

flo's avatar

@Caravanfan I don’t get that at allllllllll, or aaaaaaaaaalllllll

Caravanfan's avatar

@flo It’s because the OP worded it the way the OP did. You got clued into the gorilla before you saw the video and were looking for it. When this video came out I was in a whole roomful of people and only one person saw the gorilla. It’s a classic experiment.

flo's avatar

Again, my brain doesn’t understand that.

flo's avatar

Maybe I can understand if something like winning valuable prize (monetary or otherwise) is involved, but otherwise, no I don’t understand.

Response moderated (Flame-Bait)
rebbel's avatar

@flo Do you understand @Caravanfan ‘s second sentence?
You were aware a gorilla wouls star in the vid before you pushed play?

flo's avatar

It’s too hard to not see it whether one knew about the gorrilla ahead of time, or not. It’s too plain to see. Another video where the gorrila is obscured by other items etc. maybe. In this video the gorrila is way too in your face.

seawulf575's avatar

@flo, the test, as it was first put to the class I was in was that we were going to see a video and after the video with some people bouncing a basketball and we would be asked a question about it. Then we watched the video. We were watching the players and the basketball, looking for specifics about it. The gorilla actually blended into the background. Most people did not see it.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

@flo You knew ahead of time had you not been told I’m willing to wager heavily you would have missed it too.

Dutchess_III's avatar

I sure missed it.

OK, @flo. Since you haven’t been clued in already, try this one..

Inspired_2write's avatar

I did not know of that name “Gorilla Experiment” term but in College in Psychology class the instructor was writing on the black board and we were all taking notes when a stranger walked into the class and walked up to the instructor and said something ( I can’t remember now what he said) a short scuffle and then he left.

After he left the instructor told everyone to stop taking notes and describe what just happened in detail.

I think because I was in the front row of desks that I heard and saw things clearly and thus remembered more of what happened.

Only the three of us students noticed and remembered his type of clothes, colors and what he said and did.

It taught us to always be aware of our surroundings much like a Cop is trained to do.

filmfann's avatar

When I first saw it many years ago, I missed the gorilla.

Mimishu1995's avatar

@flo I heard about the experiment years ago, but I didn’t watch the video until now. So I’m also clued about the gorilla, but I tried to watch the video from the perspective of people who weren’t. I ended up both seeing and not seeing the gorilla. The gorilla showed up then suddenly disappeared in mid-air.

So, in order to see the gorrila, you either have to know that it will appear first-hand, or don’t pay that much attention to the question.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Yeah. If you already know it’s going to show up, AND that it is the star of the show, it’s impossible to miss it. That’s why the fact that almost everyone who didn’t know it was going to show up completely missed it when he did. There is a whole series of stuff like that out there, probably on PBS.

flo's avatar

See @Caravanfan‘s and @seawulf575‘s posts “Most people didn’t see it” so there were some or at least one person, “one person saw it”.
I posted an OP about this topic.

flo's avatar

@Inspired_2write But not remembering details that you refer to in your example, is different from not seeing the gorrila.

flo's avatar

Why would not seeing the gorrila make more sense than seeing the gorrila?

Dutchess_III's avatar

Because the instructions were to count the number of passes. How many passes did they execute @flo?

flo's avatar

The instruction from the boss is to count the number of x or y or z, or the instruction from the doctor to the nurse is to…
Everyday, people walk and chew gum and more.

Dutchess_III's avatar

Flo. How many passes were made by people in white? That is what you were supposed to be focusing on in the video.
If you didn’t bother to follow the directions your entire observation is invalid.

Mimishu1995's avatar

The instruction from the boss is to count the number of x or y or z, or the instruction from the doctor to the nurse is to…Everyday, people walk and chew gum and more.
Looks like you haven’t seen the video carefully.

flo's avatar

There would be disasters all over thge place, everyday, many times a day, if people didn’t notice other things while they are doing something that requires focus.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

I tune my wife out all the time while we are driving and things get a little troubling, If I didn’t we would probably both die in a fiery crash. It may get me in trouble but humans cannot multitask. The fact we miss the gorilla is just one example of this.

flo's avatar

…So, the people who do notice things must be extra ordinary, superhuman or rare. No of course not.

I don’t know why you all are insisting you all have much fewer brain cells than the ones (in some of you’s experience, and in the report of the video) who saw the gorilla.

flo's avatar

@ARE_you_kidding_me This is not about multi tasking. It’s just about noticing something that’s palinly there, and cannot be avoided, whether the count is accurate (most likely not because of the entrance of the gorrila. The fact that people got the count wrong says what? It says that they saw the gorrila, and got distracted by it So, by definition, it can’t be that people failed to see it.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

@flo, Yes it is about multitasking. You have to take your eyes off the ball and the people with white shirts to even see the gorilla, you cannot do both. You only think you can do both. The gorilla just registers as a person not wearing a white shirt and you will ignore it. That is why people who don’t know, follow instructions and watch the ball generally always miss the gorilla. The more you focus on the ball and white shirted people the harder the gorilla is to see. This is a big fail for you since you knew ahead of time. If you go in knowing you will always see the gorilla because you are looking for it. Once you know it is impossible not to see it.

flo's avatar

@ARE_you_kidding_me I believe you rephrased “I don’t know why you all are insisting you all have much fewer brain cells than the ones (in some of you’s experience, and in the report of the video) who saw the gorilla.” one of your statements in your post, minus that one word.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

@flo It is simply an exercise in exhaustion to try to get you to understand this.

flo's avatar

…since I’m the one who is saying it’s impossible to not see it, ....

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

@flo For the last time since you knew beforehand you will never, ever miss the Gorilla.

flo's avatar

@ARE_you_kidding_me There are many people who didn’t know ahead of time, who didn’t miss the gorilla.

Caravanfan's avatar

Okay @flo I’ll try again.
Watch this. Make sure you watch it all the way through and count the passes by the people in the white t-shirts.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

@flo If you’re only halfway paying attention to the passes you’ll probably see the gorilla. If you are really focused on the passes, meaning you counted them correctly it is highly unlikely you even noticed the gorilla.

Dutchess_III's avatar

@Caravanfan… I was forewarned so I saw him. @flo has a lot more brain cells than I do so she’ll probably see him too. We have to find another one where no one is forewarned.

rebbel's avatar

Me, me, me!

flo's avatar

@ARE_you_kidding_me Your last post is correct. No argument there.

Dutchess_III's avatar

So you agree with @ARE_you_kidding_me that if you had actually followed the directions you’d know what we’re talking about, @flo?

flo's avatar

I take beck my last post.

ARE_you_kidding_me's avatar

To be honest @flo, people with “less brain cells” who cannot concentrate on the ball and white shirts will see the gorilla.

Dutchess_III's avatar

And do you understand that you saw the gorilla because you were TOLD there was a gorilla in the video before you watched it?

rebbel's avatar

I’m starting to feel sorry for the gorilla…

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