ColinD
Well-known member
There was a really interesting program on BBC4 on Wednesday. It was called "Blink: a Horizon Guide to Senses". It was basically looking back at archive footage from Horizon to see how science has worked out how we use our senses.
One clip which I found particularly interesting was an experiment to show how easily we can miss things and what an important part our brains play in our vision. An audience was asked to watch a video of three basketballl players dressed in yellow kit throwing a ball to each other. The audience were asked to count how many times the ball was thrown. To make it a bit more difficult, there were also three basketball players in a blue kit throwing a second ball, but the audience was told to ignore them.
After the clip had been played, the audience were asked how many of them noticed anything unusual. Five out of about 40 people said that they had noticed something unusual, but the rest hadn't. They were then told to watch the clip again, but this time don't count. Amazingly, while the players were throwing the ball, a person in a gorilla outfit walked in front of the players, looked at the camera and beat his chest before walking off. Most of the audience (and myself watching at home) had completely missed the gorilla. I was so flabergasted that I rewound the program to watch the original again, and sure enough, there was the gorilla.
Apparently our brains were so busy counting the throws and the gorilla was so unexpected, that it didn't register and we didn't see it.
It got me wondering if this could be applied to birding. I have a very logical and statistical mind, and my immediate reaction on seeing a flock of birds, especially if they are uncommon, is to count them, and then I count them again to see how many males and females there are. Is it possible that I could miss the birding equivelent of the gorilla walking in front? Could this partly explain why some people are apparently very good at finding rarities, whilst others are not? How else might it affect what we see?
By the way, once you knew to expect the gorilla, the trick didn't work anymore. I watched it again, and even though I was counting I saw the gorilla.
One clip which I found particularly interesting was an experiment to show how easily we can miss things and what an important part our brains play in our vision. An audience was asked to watch a video of three basketballl players dressed in yellow kit throwing a ball to each other. The audience were asked to count how many times the ball was thrown. To make it a bit more difficult, there were also three basketball players in a blue kit throwing a second ball, but the audience was told to ignore them.
After the clip had been played, the audience were asked how many of them noticed anything unusual. Five out of about 40 people said that they had noticed something unusual, but the rest hadn't. They were then told to watch the clip again, but this time don't count. Amazingly, while the players were throwing the ball, a person in a gorilla outfit walked in front of the players, looked at the camera and beat his chest before walking off. Most of the audience (and myself watching at home) had completely missed the gorilla. I was so flabergasted that I rewound the program to watch the original again, and sure enough, there was the gorilla.
Apparently our brains were so busy counting the throws and the gorilla was so unexpected, that it didn't register and we didn't see it.
It got me wondering if this could be applied to birding. I have a very logical and statistical mind, and my immediate reaction on seeing a flock of birds, especially if they are uncommon, is to count them, and then I count them again to see how many males and females there are. Is it possible that I could miss the birding equivelent of the gorilla walking in front? Could this partly explain why some people are apparently very good at finding rarities, whilst others are not? How else might it affect what we see?
By the way, once you knew to expect the gorilla, the trick didn't work anymore. I watched it again, and even though I was counting I saw the gorilla.