In psychology, there’s a phenomenon called “Inattentional Blindness.” This happens when someone fails to notice something unexpected because their attention is focused on something else (Mack & Rock, 1998).
For example, in a study, people were asked to count the number of passes between basketball players. Surprisingly, some participants completely missed seeing a gorilla walking through the players while they were counting passes (Simons & Chabris, 1999). This shows that when we are focused on a specific task or instruction, we might not notice other things happening around us (Most et al., 2005).
In a sports psychology study, researchers found that if players were given specific instructions to pay attention to something, they might miss important actions of their own teammates, even if they were right in front of them (Memmert & Furley, 2007).
Mack, A., & Rock, I. (1998). Inattentional blindness. Cambridge: MIT Press.
Memmert, D., & Furley, P. (2007). “I spy with my little eye!” Breadth of attention, inattentional blindness, and tactical decision making in team sports. Journal of Sport & Exercise Psychology, 29, 365 381.
Most, S. B., Scholl, B. J., Clifford, E. R., & Simons, D. J. (2005). What you see is what you set: Sustained inatten- tional blindness and the capture of awareness. Psychological Review, 112, 217 242.
Simons, D. J., & Chabris, C. F. (1999). Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events. Perception, 28, 1059 1074.
