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    Rahul Rai
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    Brian Scholl discusses the paradoxical nature of attention and focus. On one hand, the brain must make inferences about the world based on limited visual information, acting like a detective. On the other hand, there is too much information for the brain to focus on everything, so it must be highly selective. He explains that people often falsely assume that as long as their eyes are open, they will see whatever is in front of them, but this is not true due to inattentional blindness, where unexpected objects can be missed if not the focus of attention. Seeing is the most common activity but is taken for granted, with mistaken assumptions about how perception works.

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    Brian Scholl discusses the paradoxical nature of attention and focus. On one hand, the brain must make inferences about the world based on limited visual information, acting like a detective. On the other hand, there is too much information for the brain to focus on everything, so it must be highly selective. He explains that people often falsely assume that as long as their eyes are open, they will see whatever is in front of them, but this is not true due to inattentional blindness, where unexpected objects can be missed if not the focus of attention. Seeing is the most common activity but is taken for granted, with mistaken assumptions about how perception works.

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    20 views1 page

    Obs p3 Brian Scholl Transcript

    Uploaded by

    Rahul Rai
    Brian Scholl discusses the paradoxical nature of attention and focus. On one hand, the brain must make inferences about the world based on limited visual information, acting like a detective. On the other hand, there is too much information for the brain to focus on everything, so it must be highly selective. He explains that people often falsely assume that as long as their eyes are open, they will see whatever is in front of them, but this is not true due to inattentional blindness, where unexpected objects can be missed if not the focus of attention. Seeing is the most common activity but is taken for granted, with mistaken assumptions about how perception works.

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    of 1

    Improving

     Observation  Skills,  Page  3  


    Video:     Focus  Expert:  Brian  Scholl  
    Link:     https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KVRDLVFb8OM  
    Duration:   1  minute,  41  seconds  
     
    BRIAN  SCHOLL:  The  core  of  attention  and  focus  is  two  seemingly  paradoxical  relationships.  On  
    the  one  hand,  there's  not  enough  information  coming  in  through  the  eyes  to  infer  what's  going  
    on  out  there  in  the  world.  As  a  result  the  brain  has  to  be  like  a  detective.  And  on  the  basis  of  
    this  sketchy  evidence  it  gets  from  the  eyes,  it  has  to  infer  what's  going  on  in  the  world.  At  the  
    same  time  there's  far  too  much  information  out  there  in  the  world  to  focus  on  at  any  given  
    second,  and  so  every  moment  we  have  to  be  extremely  highly  selective  and  focus  on  only  a  
    very  small  amount  of  what's  in  front  of  us.  

    When  you're  driving  in  your  car,  for  example,  driving  in  your  car  and  talking  on  your  cellphone,  
    you  might  make  a  special  effort  to  check  your  blind  spot  more.  But  here's  something  you'll  
    never  do.  You'll  never  make  a  special  effort  to  see  what's  right  in  front  of  you  when  your  eyes  
    are  open.  Why?  Because  you're  under  the  grip  of  an  assumption.  A  false  assumption.  You're  
    assuming  that  whatever's  right  in  front  of  your  eyes,  as  long  as  your  eyes  are  open,  you'll  see.  
    But  it's  not  true.  In  any  visual  image,  there's  just  far  too  much  information  for  our  puny  brains  
    to  process.  Inattentional  blindness  is  this  phenomenon  where  an  unexpected  object,  no  matter  
    how  salient  it  is,  that's  right  in  front  of  us,  if  we're  not  expecting  it,  if  we're-­‐  if  our  attention  is  
    otherwise  engaged,  we  will  completely  fail  to  consciously  perceive  it.  

    Seeing  is  certainly  the  single  most  common  activity  that  anyone  engages  in  all  day  long.  And  we  
    completely  take  it  for  granted.  We  have  completely  mistaken  assumptions  about  how  
    perception  works.  And  so  learning  a  bit  about  some  of  these  phenomena  can  really  make  a  
    difference.  

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