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35 commentsHow good are you when it comes to concentration and perception?
Here is a cool experiment where you can test you ability to focus attention on a certain object in a short video.
When you follow the link below, a new window will open and you will see a short video. In the video two groups of people are passing a basket ball to each other. You should focus your attention on the people in white t-shirts. Try to count how many times the ball is passed between them during the video. This can be a bit tricky as the other group, in black t-shirts, must be ignored. When you have watched the video, close the window and return to this site.
Watch the video only once.
Selective attention video – Visual Cognition Lab
Scroll to the bottom of the page to get the answer.
How many did you get? 10-15?
Did you see anything else?
Whenever your eyes are open, all the information in the image that is projected onto your retina is available to your brain. But the amount of information is just too great, so you choose to focus your attention on certain things. For example if you look out your window for five minutes, then look away, you can probably tell if there are a lot of people or cars outside. You have noticed if it´s raining and you can tell the color of the house across the street. What you can´t say is how many tiles are on the roof of that building, or how many branches are on the big tree in your neighbor´s garden. Your brain has chosen to ignore that information, even though it was available to you.
Watch the video again, this time don´t count the balls, just watch it like any other video.
Selective attention video – Visual Cognition Lab
Don´t read on until you´ve watched the video again…..
Did you see anything this time?
Did you see this gorilla?
Very few people actually see the gorilla, partly because you are asked to watch the people in white, but mostly because you are too busy focusing on the ball. Now you can ask yourself how much else are you missing every day?
Send this page to your friends and see if their minds are more observant than yours! Also try to show this video for a group of people – ask them not to say anything, but just write down their answer. Tell them that this is a test of the attention of men vs women – that will get them really focused 
See how many times you can show them the video before they all see the gorilla.
Selective attention on Wikipedia.org
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