The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us
Reading this book will make you less sure of yourself—and that’s a good thing. In The Invisible Gorilla, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, creators of one of psychology’s most famous experiments, use remarkable stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to demonstrate an important truth: Our minds don’t work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves an...more
Hardcover, 320 pages
Published
May 18th 2010
by Harmony
(first published January 1st 2001)
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This is a mostly fascinating book which discusses the differences between how we imagine that our minds/brains work and how really do. The authors are the psychologists who did the experiment a decade ago using a movie of two teams of people passing basketballs back & forth between them. They asked people to watch the film and count the number of passes between members of the team in white tee-shirts. Then they asked the watchers if they noticed anything unusual about the film. About half th...more
Instead of writing a full review, I'd like to take up some issues with the low-star reviews, which seem to have strong patterns to them that should be adressed. As a disclaimer - I am merely a reader of this book, not a psychological scientist, and I do think negative reviews have their place for ANYTHING that is meant for an audience. And they are important because when reading reviews, you want to know whether the product is something *you* would like to have and may share some of your interes...more
I finished this book much more aware of how limited my mental abilities are. And that's a good thing. As Chabris and Simons state in the conclusion, these mental illusions "result from mistaken judgments about our limitations." If we are willing to acknowledge and accept those limitations we are that much more aware of the illusions and better able to see through them.
Chabris and Simons discuss several commonplace, everyday illusions which the vast majority of us are not only unaware of, but act...more
Chabris and Simons discuss several commonplace, everyday illusions which the vast majority of us are not only unaware of, but act...more
There are some pretty major flaws in the experiments he lists as "proof" of his points.
-Deciding whether a person has a "good" or "bad" sense of humor-- based on whether their ratings of jokes correlates with 30 professional comedians? Seriously? Isn't it obvious that the people who score "poorly" are just the kind of people who don't go to comedy clubs, or find the dumb jokes on TV funny?
-There ARE a variety of ways a chess player can be underscored in the ratings. (Although, it is true that 10...more
-Deciding whether a person has a "good" or "bad" sense of humor-- based on whether their ratings of jokes correlates with 30 professional comedians? Seriously? Isn't it obvious that the people who score "poorly" are just the kind of people who don't go to comedy clubs, or find the dumb jokes on TV funny?
-There ARE a variety of ways a chess player can be underscored in the ratings. (Although, it is true that 10...more
This book was fascinating and actually had a significant impact on how I think. The authors describe various things scientists are learning about how the human mind works, and then they compare these to how we THINK our minds work, exposing how we humans are vulnerable to a number of different illusions. They discuss...
The illusion of perception - you think you see things more clearly than you really do. You're capable of completely missing very significant visual details (like in one test a gor...more
The illusion of perception - you think you see things more clearly than you really do. You're capable of completely missing very significant visual details (like in one test a gor...more
So...this book got published because it's by a pair of celebrity scientists (not to say that that affects their other work, but I think it effected the book).
The problem that I see with it, generally, is that they have a very interesting set of experiments about what they call attentional blindness and the illusion of attention. I.e. the reason that a bunch of people didn't notice a gorilla (well, someone in a gorilla suit) walk through a crowd of students passing around basketballs, and why peo...more
The problem that I see with it, generally, is that they have a very interesting set of experiments about what they call attentional blindness and the illusion of attention. I.e. the reason that a bunch of people didn't notice a gorilla (well, someone in a gorilla suit) walk through a crowd of students passing around basketballs, and why peo...more
This book offers a lot of discussion and experimentation as to why our experiences are affected by our intuitions. It also offers a lot of acknowledgments to people and footnotes. This is all well and good, but the fact that it offers insight into how you can curb these illusions is the most gratifying conclusion you can expect.
While we can’t completely eliminate these illusions around us, we can “override” them by knowing that they are there — if only for brief moments. Chabris and Simons point...more
While we can’t completely eliminate these illusions around us, we can “override” them by knowing that they are there — if only for brief moments. Chabris and Simons point...more
In two words: eye-opening.
The title of this book is derived from an experiment (which readers can take for themselves) that yieled some very surprising results. The readers won't necessarily have the same results, but to the uninitiated who did the experiment originally, many were very surprised to find their observations weren't as accurate as they thought.
There are some well-known examples and case studies within this book that also illustrate just how what we think we know may not be correct...more
The title of this book is derived from an experiment (which readers can take for themselves) that yieled some very surprising results. The readers won't necessarily have the same results, but to the uninitiated who did the experiment originally, many were very surprised to find their observations weren't as accurate as they thought.
There are some well-known examples and case studies within this book that also illustrate just how what we think we know may not be correct...more
The authors once conducted an experiment where people were asked to count basketballs while another person walked through their field of vision, unnoticed, dressed as a gorilla. The authors concluded that there was an illusion of attention ("inattentional blindness"). They expanded this notion to write this book about the illusions of memory, confidence, knowledge, causal relationships, and potential. Their lesson from all of this is that we need to be wary of our intuitions as they are poorly a...more
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Do you think you would notice if a gorilla ran into a basketball game that you were diligently counting passes for? Think again!
As _The Invisible Gorilla_ reveals, we're all deluded by how capable we think our minds are. We've all been under the spell of believing that our brains' abilities and potentials are far greater than they actually are. The reality is that our minds don't work in the ways we think they do. Our "common sense" results in us intuitively accepting these six everyday illu...more
Do you think you would notice if a gorilla ran into a basketball game that you were diligently counting passes for? Think again!
As _The Invisible Gorilla_ reveals, we're all deluded by how capable we think our minds are. We've all been under the spell of believing that our brains' abilities and potentials are far greater than they actually are. The reality is that our minds don't work in the ways we think they do. Our "common sense" results in us intuitively accepting these six everyday illu...more
This book looks at the things we think we know, but really don't. There are Illusions of Attention, Memory, Confidence, Knowledge, and Potential. Each of the illusions is examined, with examples shown of the differences between what we think happens and what really happens.
Attention-Everyone believes that we see everything that happens in the world around us. This is where the famous Invisible Gorilla video comes into play. Check it out. This is just one example of selective attention. We only...more
Attention-Everyone believes that we see everything that happens in the world around us. This is where the famous Invisible Gorilla video comes into play. Check it out. This is just one example of selective attention. We only...more
Because I was already familiar with the hidden gorilla experiment demonstrating inattentional blindness, I initially assumed this book would be a rehash. But it delivered a more detailed study of the illusion of attention and six other illusions, and turned out to be an informative source of information on hidden human behavioral patterns. This are:
(1) Illusion of Attention—although we think we see what’s in front of us, focus and expectation leads us to often miss the unexpected, even when it i...more
(1) Illusion of Attention—although we think we see what’s in front of us, focus and expectation leads us to often miss the unexpected, even when it i...more
A good read for a plane ride. It puts together several "illusions" that are all related to how our brain works. The authors assemble a mountain of academic research in their field, psychology, and several related ones, and package them into compact, wonderfully written chapters. There are deep insights every couple pages. What is admirable throughout is their rigorous commitment to the scientific method, to questioning their own conclusions, and to limiting and qualifying most of their results....more
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illusions of attention, memory, confidence, knowledge, cause, potential. excellent well organized, informative, important book.
each chapter is an illusion caused by our mental structures, like optical illusions effect our perception, a must read for anyone interested in clearer thinking, which ought to be everyone.
each chapter presents an illusion, like the gorilla in the basketball passings video. presents the illusion, then using experimental results and interesting examples shows us what the...more
each chapter is an illusion caused by our mental structures, like optical illusions effect our perception, a must read for anyone interested in clearer thinking, which ought to be everyone.
each chapter presents an illusion, like the gorilla in the basketball passings video. presents the illusion, then using experimental results and interesting examples shows us what the...more
Do you ever feel like your mind is playing tricks on you?
You’re not crazy – your instincts are deceiving you (those bastards).
My latest rental from the library, The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, provides a jaw-droppingly fascinating perspective into mental illusions that influence our every word, action, and thought.
Chabris & Simons, both established cognitive psychologists, are best known for their “Gorillas in Our Mids...more
You’re not crazy – your instincts are deceiving you (those bastards).
My latest rental from the library, The Invisible Gorilla: And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, provides a jaw-droppingly fascinating perspective into mental illusions that influence our every word, action, and thought.
Chabris & Simons, both established cognitive psychologists, are best known for their “Gorillas in Our Mids...more
Clear headed look at a number of flaws in the human brain's wiring. "Flaw" is clearly a loaded term - more specifically, in the context of modern society, the human brain gets a number of things (objectively) wrong. For those with a lot of familiarity with similar literature, there isn't a whole lot new here. Another problem is that the book bogs down with lengthy discussion of specific issues (e.g. the science pertaining to vaccinations, the effect of video games on cognitive ability, specific...more
This is an awesome book. I loved the part about the illusion of memory, I loved the part where they warned about correlation becoming causation, and I loved the part about the gorilla experiment. The authors tried to stay neutral on issues like religion in this book, but lots of what was said in this book reminds me of Caveman Logic.
Awesome quote:
"Parents and scientists seeking a cause for the increase in autism rates spotted this association [between vaccinations and autism:] and inferred a ca...more
Awesome quote:
"Parents and scientists seeking a cause for the increase in autism rates spotted this association [between vaccinations and autism:] and inferred a ca...more
A book on the psychology of intuition and perception. Thematically similar to "Blink" by Malcolm Gladwell, but their conclusions don't often agree.
While The Invisible Gorilla has plenty of informative passages, thoroughly evaluating contemporary psychology myths in each part, the book's necessarily negative overtone (subtitled "And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us") makes it somewhat dissatisfying as a whole despite valid insights. The book has to be cynical because its unique angle is in it...more
While The Invisible Gorilla has plenty of informative passages, thoroughly evaluating contemporary psychology myths in each part, the book's necessarily negative overtone (subtitled "And Other Ways Our Intuitions Deceive Us") makes it somewhat dissatisfying as a whole despite valid insights. The book has to be cynical because its unique angle is in it...more
Reading this book will make you less sure of yourself--and that's a good thing. In The Invisible Gorilla, Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, creators of one of psychology's most famous experiments, use remarkable stories and counterintuitive scientific findings to demonstrate an important truth: Our minds don't work the way we think they do. We think we see ourselves and the world as they really are, but we're actually missing a whole lot.
Chabris and Simons combine the work of other research
Basically, question: how much you're actually paying attention to your surroundings, how accurate your memories really are, how much your confidence in your abilities really reflects your actual abilities, how much you really know about what you think you know (do you know how a bicycle works? explain it), whether two things happening in sequence are a indication of correlation instead of causation, and whether learning a particular task affects your abilities in other areas (does doing a crossw...more
This book took me down a couple notches. According to Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, I miss a heckuva lot that's going on right in front of my nose, and come to conclusions based on my own state of mind rather than the facts. The book sets out to debunk 6 or so everyday illusions - attention, knowledge, memory,confidence, cause, and potential. In the process it takes down a lot of commonly held beliefs (eg. doing crossword puzzles increases your brain power for other areas of life, or th...more
I do enjoy reading social psychology books, and know a little on this topic before i picked this up. However I did learn a fair bit from this book and it was insightful to the topics it portrayed. It backed each point up with case studies and insights, which helped you grasp each concept they showed.
It was written in an accessible manner (some of these types of books can be a bit hit and miss) but i got into the writing style and could fully understand what they were trying to say. Like any soc...more
It was written in an accessible manner (some of these types of books can be a bit hit and miss) but i got into the writing style and could fully understand what they were trying to say. Like any soc...more
If perceptions and illusions intrigue you, this is the book for you. I’m fascinated by the subject. These books seem to be tricky to write. In order to be credible, the author ought to have a grounding in social sciences, which tends to burden them with the curse of academia. Making the switch a breezy, anecdotal style from the torpor of scholarly writing is like hopping into a roadster from a big rig. Stories are another problem. They should be compelling and fresh. If one spends years assembli...more
This book is a guided tour through six everyday illusions (attention, memory, knowledge, confidence, cause, and potential) that are all directly related to the human desire to pretend it has things more under control than it actually does. While many of the examples are fascinating (the widely-believed but erroneous Mozart Effect, scientifically unjustified fears about vaccinations, the crappiness of flashbulb memory and what it means for eyewitness testimony, how talking on a cellphone wrecks y...more
This book was really fun at points, but also extremely laborious at other points. Each chapter is a very detailed, thoroughly footnoted analysis of ways our intuitions deceive us. Both authors come from an intensely scientific point of view, being immensely analytical in their thought processes. Though I didn’t agree with them on all points, it was still a very good and insightful read.
The book is built around the six different ways our intuitions deceive us—the illusion of attention, the illus...more
The book is built around the six different ways our intuitions deceive us—the illusion of attention, the illus...more
Sometimes I wonder if I just happen to read books in a particular order, or if the connections my mind makes between books I read and the general thoughts and themes of my life at any given moment are just a grand illusion, a construct of the mind geared at making sense of the world.
The Invisible Gorilla is a very interesting book which addresses just this issue, along with others. As you can probably infer from the title, the authors are the psychologists who ran that now rather well-known expe...more
The Invisible Gorilla is a very interesting book which addresses just this issue, along with others. As you can probably infer from the title, the authors are the psychologists who ran that now rather well-known expe...more
I remember seeing this experiment on tv: you're watching a couple of groups of people throwing basketballs. You're asked to count the number passes made by the players in white. As you are diligently counting, a person in a gorilla suit walks across the screen. The real question being asked is not how many passes were made, but simply "did you notice the gorilla?" A surprising number of people got the count of passes correct, but did not see the gorilla.
This book is by the authors of the above t...more
This book is by the authors of the above t...more
The book seeks to tackle 6 common illusions that deeply influence our lives. They are the illusions of attention, memory, confidence, knowledge, cause, and potential. For each illusion, the authors provide a number of interesting stories that are supported by extensive studies and research.
The name of the book comes from one of the most famous psychological experiments ever. This experiment, conducted by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, involved asking participants to watch a video in whi...more
The name of the book comes from one of the most famous psychological experiments ever. This experiment, conducted by Christopher Chabris and Daniel Simons, involved asking participants to watch a video in whi...more
This book contained some great fact-based studies of how human memory works, and mainly how fallible our memory actually is. It can be sort of depressing I suppose, but the main point of this book is to help you identify several illusions we encounter in day-to-day activities regarding our own perception, memory, and attentiveness, and how we can become more aware of those things to improve our lives. The big picture: our memory really sucks, but if you're aware of it, you can take defensive ste...more
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your inferences and and why you rated it three stars could have been much mo...more
Aug 26, 2012 08:36am