Lessons from the Invisible Gorilla Experiment

In our bustling, multitasking world, the significance of body awareness often takes a back seat. Strong Bones classes regularly weave body awareness into each exercise, which can not only improve exercise performance but also enhance daily life and overall well-being. Meanwhile, it's not unusual to fail to notice something because attention is engaged elsewhere.

The Phenomenon of Inattentional Blindness. A psychological phenomenon where we fail to perceive an unexpected object, action, or event in plain sight because attention is focused elsewhere — even careful, focused drivers can miss a deer approaching the road, and we're routinely fooled by magicians' sleight of hand.

The Invisible Gorilla Experiment: A Classic Example. The most famous demonstration was done in 1999 by psychologists Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. Participants watch a short video of two teams (black shirts, white shirts) passing a basketball and are asked to silently count the white-shirt team's passes. Halfway through, a person in a gorilla suit walks through, pauses, pounds her chest, and walks off. Amazingly, more than half of participants say they noticed nothing unusual — and even after being told about the gorilla, many are certain they couldn't have missed it, sometimes accusing researchers of having switched the tape. The experiment has been repeated many times across countries and conditions with the same result: about 50% fail to see the gorilla, suggesting we experience much less of our visual world than we think.

Inattentional Blindness in Medicine. A 2013 study asked twenty-four experienced, credentialed radiologists to perform a familiar lung-nodule detection task on several CT scans (average of ten nodules per scan, click to identify them). The last of five scans had something unexpected: an image of a gorilla forty-eight times the size of a typical nodule. Twenty of twenty-four radiologists (83%) failed to see the gorilla, despite scrolling past it more than four times on average.

Trust But Verify. It's disturbing that even seasoned professionals in their domain of expertise can be vulnerable to inattentional blindness. Perhaps the takeaway is to always seek a second, or even third, opinion. (This might be a good application for AI to assist in detecting abnormalities.)

Beyond the Gorilla: Cultivating Awareness. In a world of distraction and over-stimulation, it's easy to lose touch with self-awareness and surroundings. While inattentional blindness can't be fully eliminated, ways to help mitigate it include: taking regular breaks from tasks (especially repetitive/intense work) to refresh attention; taking long breaks from your cell phone; limiting how much news you consume; pausing to shift focus when moving between tasks; cultivating mindfulness practices such as meditation or slow, intentional breathing; trying an Awareness Through Movement lesson in the Feldenkrais Method (a free example is on Joanne's website). Simply pausing to reflect for a few moments can be transformative.

References

1. Simons DJ, Chabris CF. Gorillas in Our Midst: Sustained Inattentional Blindness for Dynamic Events. Perception. 1999;28(9):1059-1074.
2. Drew T, et al. The Invisible Gorilla Strikes Again: Sustained Inattentional Blindness in Expert Observers. Psychological Science 2013;24(9):1848-1853.