"When you direct your mental spotlight to the basketball passes, it leaves the rest of the world in darkness."
— Bloom, Paul (b. 1963)
Author
Work Title
Date
May 27, 2010
Metaphor
"When you direct your mental spotlight to the basketball passes, it leaves the rest of the world in darkness."
Metaphor in Context
This experiment, published in 1999 by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, is a striking demonstration of the zero-sum nature of attention. When you direct your mental spotlight to the basketball passes, it leaves the rest of the world in darkness. Even when you are looking straight at the gorilla (and other experiments find that people who miss it often have their eyes fully on it) you frequently don’t see it, because it’s not what you’re looking for.
Categories
Provenance
Reading
Citation
Paul Bloom, "What We Miss..." The New York Times Book Review. May 27, 2010. <Link to NYTimes.com>
Date of Entry
06/07/2010
