Selective attention

When we look around, we could be forgiven for thinking that we can see a detailed and comprehensive picture of our surroundings and environment. However, our brains can often deceive us and allow us to see things that are not there or completely miss things all together.  This very short video below is a great example.

Inattentional  Blindness

It is amazing how we can miss what it right in front of us. Over 50% of us do not see the gorilla. This is because our minds do not always work the way we think they should, especially when our attention is on something else.  We see our surroundings from our own perspective and can miss many things. So often, modern life can produce these everyday illusions.  So, what is your attention on and what are you missing? Imagine what a difference it would make if you changed the things you focused on.  As a Cognitive Hypnotherapist, I see that we all can miss countless things in our lives and I have helped many use this to achieve the changes that they want.  The Cognitive Hypnotherapy model uses this phenomenon to help create change by helping people notice more of what they want to see and less of what they don’t. What do you want to see more or less of?

 

The video was created by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons. After meeting at Harvard University in 1997, they joined forces in their research and later received the Nobel Prize in Psychology for “achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think”. They continue to work together and have now produced a book called The Invisible Gorilla. You can find out more about them and also videos and information of their other experiments on their website “The Invisible Gorilla”. It is well worth a look.

Please let me know your comments below.