Take this quick selective attention test:
Did you see the gorilla? About half the people who watch it don’t notice it. This test was created by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris, and you can read about it (and much more) in their book “The Invisible Gorilla”.
Now that this test if famous, they decided to do a follow up study to see if they could trick people who already knew about the gorilla. Here’s their new test:
This shows that even if you are expecting the unexpected, many times you still won’t notice it.
The Door Study is another interesting study they did, where a guy asks a pedestrian for directions, and then secretly is switched with someone else. Amazingly, half the pedestrians don’t notice the change:
Popularity: 51% [?]
