Steve Clayton sent this around a little earlier in his 'Friday Thing' - always a joy!
If you haven't seen this viral video and TV advert put out by Transport for London, then click through now and do the test.
Steve guaranteed that you would;
A) Laugh a lot
B) Send it to your friends
I agree.. so do the test now!
It's all about whether or not you can keep up mentally with the action on screen - it takes a lot of attention. So if you haven't seen it - do that now - do NOT read on until you've done the test.
No - don't read on yet - unless you've really, really, really done the test. Seriously, there's a spoiler coming - so don't read on! Click on the link above now, then come back after you've done the test.
when you've done it... scroll down....
Are you sure you've done the test?
a little bit more
and more
The test is still available if you haven't done it yet?
no you're not off the last bit yet... come on, you can do it
Ok, we're there I think!
It is good isn’t it?
About a third of people see the interruption the first time out, so it's not a guaranteed wow factor, but most people simply don't notice what should be obvious and is in plain sight.
I was a bit peeved actually, because for ages I’ve had it on my list to recreate what is quite a famous cognitive experiment with our own Conchango basketball team in order to use it at conferences and the like, as its impact is incredibly surprising and quite delightful.
It's an experiment known colloquially as ‘gorillas in our midst’ - you'll see why from some of the original experiments I've listed below. Some of the first experiments in this go back 30 years.
The phenomenon is called ‘inattentional blindness’ and is the reason why people don’t see things like instructional copy on kiosks or websites! (they’re too busy trying to use the thing!)
Your brain is so busy trying to keep up with the action, and keeping track of the task in hand - i.e. counting passes, that it simply fails to register what should be a very significant event going on right in front of your eyes - in the original, a man in a gorilla suit walking right through the middle.
It's in part a protection mechanism that allows you to really concentrate. Your brain shutting out extraneous information in order to reserve its processing power for the task in hand. Fighter pilots experience a form of this when they go into extreme action - and are trained to do so - in order that they have enough brain processing power to operate at such high speed and with continued high reaction times.
In a simpler form, it's what means you miss what seem to be very obvious things on kiosks or webpages. If the eye is drawn to a particular area where you think something might be that you're looking for, you will completely blank out what is otherwise incredibly obvious. We did an airport check in kiosk application where we put instructional copy in 54 pt black text on a white background right at the top of the screen. Many people didn't even know it was there despite the fact that it occupied about a third of the screen.
Here’s the stuff on it..
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Inattentional_blindness
And here's where I first took the inspiration to re-create it. I wanted to use my boss in a pink ballet tu-tu (it wouldn't be the first time he's dressed like that - seriously!)
http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/djs_lab/demos.html (scroll all the way down to the bottom!)
And: Gorrillas in our midst - the best one I think...
Enjoy!
Update: The storm over this ad isn't done yet - but this blog post gives an update - albeit one that seems a little biased towards someone inside the advertising industry!