The Distracted Mind: Ancient Brains in a High-Tech World

by Adam Gazzaley

The researchers interviewed more than 150 students who walked through the square and noted if they were walking alone or with someone else and if they were using a cell phone or listening to music with ear buds. When asked if they saw anything unusual, only 8 percent of cell phone users reported that they saw the clown. This was compared with one in three students walking alone without technology or listening to music wearing ear buds and more than half of he students who were walking in pairs without using technology. When asked directly if they saw a clown, still only one in four of the cell-phone-using students reported seeing it compared with half of single walkers, 61 percent of music listeners, and 71 percent of walking pairs. Whatever was happening between the user and his or her phone appears to have inhibited their ability to identify such a strong bottom-up event in the immediate neighborhood.

Eithr that, or a clown cusing ruckas o campu is not considered normal.