We all use the phrase “the elephant in the room†to describe something that we all know is there but which no-one is talking about or acknowledging. What though, about the gorilla in the room? In scientific terms the invisible gorilla is at least as widespread as the elephant but now we know why people sometimes fail to see it when it is right there in front of them.
Back in 1999 a study was done which gave birth to the “invisible gorilla†as common phrase in psychological literature. In that study people were asked to watch a video in which two teams of people passed a basketball between themselves. The participants were asked to count how many times the people wearing white t-shirts passed the ball to each other. In the middle of the video a person in a gorilla suit walked into the middle of the people passing the basketballs. The gorilla-suited person beat their chest and walked off screen.
Almost half of the people did not see the gorilla.
This phenomenon of the invisible gorilla is an example of “inattention blindness†and it is believed to impact activities such as driving. If conditions are bad for example, it might be wet and there may be many things to focus your attention on, some people will be able to see all the things that are happening around them while others may not. This might be why some people will drive through a red light; they may not have seen it. It does not even have to be bad conditions that distracts a driver, it could be a phone conversation.
It is believed that the difference between people lies in their “working memoryâ€. This is the memory that Deals with what is in front of you, not with events from the past. In computer terms it is your RAM. Your working memory helps you solve a mathematics problem or recall a Grocery list. In terms of inattention blindness though the question has been are people with a high working memory capacity less likely to see a distraction like the gorilla because they focus intently on the task at hand or are they more likely to see the gorilla because they are better able to shift their attention when they need to?
That is what this new research set out to answer.
For the study the researcher used the old 1999 gorilla video but first they measured working memory capacity of the subjects. They did this by giving the subjects maths problems which were followed by a random letter. They were given fifteen sets of five maths problems followed by a letter. After each five they were asked to remember the letters at the end of the problems in sequence. Only subjects who got 80 per cent of the maths problems were included in the analysis.
Once they had established the working memory capacity of the individuals, the subjects watched the gorilla video. Again only subjects who were at least 80 per cent accurate in counting passes were included to make sure that they were engaged in the task.
Overall a staggering 42 per cent of people failed to see the gorilla in the video. However, this study showed that among people with high working memory capacity 67 per cent saw the gorilla while only 36 per cent of people with low working memory saw the chest-beating ape.
In simplified terms people who are good at concentrating are almost twice as likely to see a distraction as people who are not good at concentrating. So how do you know if you have a high working memory capacity? Well, did you see that pink tap-dancing weevil that just went across the screen or not?
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