Get your Geek On

[kaitou]

So on my way to Japan and back I listened to the audiobook version of Joe Hallinan's book 'Why We Make Mistakes.' It's really interesting, all about the psychology and neruo-science of making mistakes, and obviously applies to my line of work. When I got back I picked up a paperback copy of the book and gave it to my boss to read. I think he's enjoying it, he quoted it at a few of my coworkers today, so that's a good sign.

I wrote the author an e-mail to tell him how much I enjoyed it, and to ask him if he had any advice on mitigating the kind of errors we see at work. (There's a chapter on the kind of mistakes that Airport Security makes, which is pretty much the same position an inspector is in) And he wrote back that he would call me some time this week! How exciting is that!?

Anyway, here's an interesting quiz I found on his site:

So how did you do? I only caught one thing myself. Some QC Engineer I am. Here's a nice version of the famous basketball test. I've read about this one too much for it to work on me, I wonder if I would have caught it without being prompted or not.

I just LOVE this stuff. It's amazing how much we don't notice. How much we really can't notice. It's just too much for our eyes and brains to handle.

Comments

[adelheid-p.livejournal.com]

You have to watch this Person swap experiment by Derren Brown:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=p1aEqBaK3aM

It's just incredible what people will either not see or willingly disbelieve.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

Man, is that wild or what?

But you know, in a way it makes sense, that kind of change doesn't happen, so our brain dismisses it before it even gets as far as our consciousness.

[ickaimp.livejournal.com]

... I caught three on the first one. The Roses to Lilies, the clock on the floor into I'm not sure and the butler's rolling pin to candlestick.

Was really confused too, because I couldn't figure out why they'd changed, until they asked if we'd caught the differences.

Counted 12 passes on the second one, but missed the random.

This is really cool! Thank you! *goes to check it out some more*

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

I only caught the rolling pin myself. I think my brain spent too much time going 'bwuh?' to notice the rest of them. (And you know, I watched the video again and caught a few more things that I didn't notice while they were showing the changes)

I'm going to have to see if I can't find the Priming study that proved that people are more likely to like you if they're holding hot coffee than cold soda. Trufax.

[aphelion-orion.livejournal.com]

LOL I'm afraid I didn't do much better on the quiz. The creepiest replacement kind of test I've ever seen was where they replaced an interviewer interviewing a person live and they didn't notice they were talking to a different guy.

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

One of the interesting things is that they found that you're more likely to notice that the person changed if you are in the same age group as the person that changes. And you're far less likely to notice the person changes if they're wearing something 'uniform-ish' like a hard hat.

So basically you're more likely to notice it if you're seeing that person you're talking to as 'one of you' than 'one of them.'

I love this kind of Psychology.

[m-steelgrave.livejournal.com]

I caught three on the whodunnit one: the roses to lilies, the different clock and the different dead guy (and I only noticed that because I noticed the replacement guy's vest and thought, "That's a cool vest...wait...").

I love this kind of stuff. I wonder if being right- or left-brained has anything to do with who notices changes and who doesn't? I know it changes how we perceive things (right-brainers tend to observe things as they are, and left-brainers see things as their brain thinks they should look).

[kaitou1412.livejournal.com]

XD You know, I didn't even catch the change in dead guy when they showed all the switches. I thought they changed the carpet and he crawled back into place.

I'd be interested in hearing more about the right/left brain thing, because I thought it wasn't really that strong a difference. I mean, even the language and math thing was more that the different halves took on different parts. Like for language the Left half processes grammar & vocab and the Right half processes all the speaking bits like intonation and rhythm.

I think it has more to do with what you're paying attention to. I remember thinking 'hey rolling pin' so I noticed when it was gone. I think I was paying more attention to the words, and maybe missed the visual cues? Hm, but maybe that *would* be a LB/RB thing. *Ponders*

[m-steelgrave.livejournal.com]

I think it has more to do with what you're paying attention to.

I agree. That's why I noticed the dead guy!

The LB/RB thing is odd and I'm not sure I remember everything from the classes that talked about it (and it appears I got the halves mixed up). There's a book called Drawing on the Right Side of the Brain which is pretty standard fare in art classes now. There's a website that gives you an idea of how it works. If you turn off the rational/logical side of the brain, it allows you to draw what you see rather than what you think you see. That's why a lot of artists will lay out their work on a grid, to better allow them to get the proportion and perspective right. Without reference points like that, it's a shot in the dark to get a copy of anything right.

Edited for HTML fail. Sorry!