Fnord:
Psychologists at Harvard have proven in experiments that
we perceive less of the world than we thought, and that the brain fills in the gaps,
choosing the most probable explanation and discarding evidence for wildly
improbable ones:
Last year, with Christopher Chabris, also at Harvard, Simons showed people a
videotape of a basketball game and asked them to count the passes made by one
or other team. After about 45 seconds, a man dressed in a gorilla suit walked
slowly across the scene, passing between the players. Although he was visible
for five seconds, 40 per cent of the viewers failed to notice him. When the
tape was played again, and they were asked simply to watch it, they saw him
easily. Not surprisingly, some found it hard to believe it was the same tape.