Did you miss me?
There were nearly 350 responses to our 'inattentional blindness' test - but did you spot the gorilla?
Eureka received nearly 350 responses to its 'inattentional blindness' test – with just over 60% of people spotting the gorilla that walked across the screen.
The test is an attempt to show that people can miss obvious things when they are focused on a task. Anne Miller, in her book The Myth of the Mousetrap, says that inattentional blindness can be a key factor behind good ideas being ignored.
For the record, 22% of respondents correctly identified that there were 15 passes (at least, they agreed with me, because that's how many I counted). Around 41% counted 14 passes.
Some who replied 'yes' had obviously not seen the gorilla, so were moved to the 'no' column. Some respondents thought the interloper was a bear or a yeti – but these answers were accepted.
The average for spotting the gorilla is about 50%, so Eureka readers are better at this than the general population.
