Let's start out this post with an experiment from a classic paper by two cognitive psychologists - Dan Simons and Christopher Chabris while they were at Harvard University and for which they won the Ig Nobel Prize (the "Ig" stands for "ignoble" and the prize is a awarded annually to "honor achievements that first make people laugh, and then make them think"). If you haven't seen the video before, please do me a favor and don't ruin it for anyone else.
While you watch the video, I want you to pay close attention to the individuals wearing white shirts in the video and count the number of time"s that they pass the basketball. Watch the video here. So, how many passes did the "white shirts" make?
Now, here's the more important question. Did you see the gorilla? If not, go back and watch the video again. There's a good chance that you've seen this video before - the video was used in a study("Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events") that was subsequently published in the journal, Perception, in 1999 and was the subject of the book, The Invisible Gorilla by the two investigators. Don't feel bad if you missed the gorilla - in the original study, slightly less than half (46%) of all the participants in the study completely missed it. I have shown this video to various groups in various settings for the past few years, and about half of the individuals in these groups consistently miss the gorilla.
Most of us greatly overestimate our ability to multi-task - in fact, most of the studies that have been performed in this area suggest that the term, "multi-tasking" is a misnomer. For example, according to statistics from the National Safety Council, there 1 out of every 4 automobile accidents in the U.S. are caused by individuals who are texting and driving at the same time. The facts prove, time and time again, that we can't multi-task. As a matter of record, only about 2% of individuals can successfully focus on more than one task at the same time.
There's another famous study on so-called "inattentional blindness" (sometimes called "change blindness") called the "Door study" by these same two investigators. Basically, individuals (who were part of the study team) walked up to random individuals (who were the subjects of the study) on the street to ask for directions. While the study subjects were explaining the directions, two other individuals (also part of the study team) who were carrying a door walked between them. The first individual who had asked for directions exchanged places with one of the two individuals carrying the door. Fifty percent of the study subjects never even caught that the individual that they finished giving directions to was completely different than the individual who first asked for assistance!
Bottom line. Task fixation is great, as long as we are focusing on just one task. That's why there are so many initiatives that have forced individuals to avoid distractions and focus on one task at a time. If you happen to be a pilot, you are probably familiar with the concept known as the "sterile cockpit" - there's no small talk during take-off and landing. We've adopted this approach in the hospital setting - no one talks to a pharmacist while he or she is preparing medications for administration to patients. Similarly, no one is talking during the crucial pre-surgery "time-out".
If you ever find yourself in a situation where you are trying to multi-task, please remember that there are gorillas in our midst!
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