After a semester of psychology, one of the concepts that I will remember clearly is inattentional blindness. Inattentional blindness is defined as failing to notice something that is in plain sight due to being focused on something else. We have all experienced it at one point or another, however we never seem to notice it. When you look at it, inattentional blindness can be both a blessing and a curse. It's bad in that we might miss something important. An example of this is failing to notice a speeding car heading towards you as you are crossing because you are texting someone. However it isn't all bad, If we actively noticed all of our surroundings, we would be overwhelmed with information to the point that it would impair our ability to function properly. We need to zone out some stuff in order to focus on what's important, noticing the color of the bike you just passed can be the last of your worries.
So remember, next time you see a friend and wave at them from afar, yet they don't notice you, they are most likely exhibiting inattentional blindness.
Finally here is a video that illustrates this phenomenon in action:
How many changes did you spot?
OMG. This movie blew my mind, too. But it makes me wonder...how much of my life did I miss because I wasn't paying attention? :(
Wow even when I tried to look for changes I missed many of them! I think it's a good point to relate in-attentional blindness to the roads- texting, talking on the phone, changing the radio station, and typing in a GPS all lead to an alarming number of crashes.
This is one i will also remember. It's mind boggling that we can miss so much because we're focused on something else. Your reasoning for it being a good thing was one that never crossed my mind. But if we focused on everything we came in contact with we would go crazy! Great video..it added a lot to your blog.
I like your final example of a friend not seeing you wave at a distance, due to inattentional blindness. This is definitely a concept we see each and every day of our lives...or, that we DON'T see.
Inattentional blindness can also apply to different aspects of our lives, like being open to new experiences & enjoying little moments that we don't usually pay attention to: sunsets, beautiful views, etc.
I really like watching videos like this. Inattentional blindness is something, I agree, that can be good or bad. I feel like I was trying to hard to pay attention in the video that it wasn't as surprising to see all of the changes.
It never gets old...because it's just so fascinating to see everything we just had no idea was right in front of our faces.
Two examples of long term inattentional blindness that I can think of are;
- going back to the place I grew up
- being back on campus after graduating 5 years ago
Whenever I head back to the house I grew up to visit my parents, I'm always shocked at how much for granted I took the experience. Back then it was just a place I eventually wanted to leave - not knowing it has nice parks, it's quiet and it's just pretty. I still wouldn't live there...but all the same...
When I was an undergrad I couldn't have cared less about so many aspects of the U of M. Unfortunately that's a part of most undergraduate students' philosophy, but back then college is a different experience. Sometimes it takes being away for awhile to really go back and see everything you missed, on account of focusing on so many other things.
This is a concept that I will definitely remember as well. I think that this concept is bizarre. It's weird to think about how many things you may have missed out on just because of inattentional blindness. It can be good and bad things as well. It would be interesting to be able to find out all of the little things that we missed out on in our lives due to this concept.
That was really amazing. I did like this unit of optical illusions because it shows how flawed human perception really is. Just like the gorilla walking through white and black teams tossing a basketball, it's amazing how much we don't notice. If we noticed every little thing in the world, we'd be constantly overwhelmed.