Gorillas in our midst

Gorillas in our midst - experiment by psychologist Daniel Simons - Visual Cognition Lab at the University of Illinois.

People are shown a video of a basketball game and asked to count how many passes one team makes.

Fifty % of viewers do not see the woman wearing a gorilla suit who appears on screen.

It’s inattentional blindness - people see what they’re expecting / used to seeing.

People see their idea of things - a concept - (see family snaps with very messy backgrounds) - not what’s actually there.

See also Temple Grandin - autistic animal expert - she says animals and some autistic people just see what’s there - they don’t do the filtering.

Human and animal perceptions are different - cattle sheds can be built to human specifications with fluorescent lighting etc - but this can scare sensitive animals.