Has anyone ever experienced inattentional blindness? It's when you miss something right in front of your eyes. I'm thinking about writing an article on the many different ways we make mistakes.
I read where a group of radiologists were given a chest Xray to view and many failed to notice that there was a missing clavicle!
I remember driving through a red light on my way home after a night shift. I didn't see the red light, and I may have never known, except that a policeman pulled me over. He saw my stethoscope and just gave me a warning. You can imagine how much it shook me up.
Wonder if anyonelse has had a similar experience? I suspect there's a lot more to the science of making mistakes that we realize.
I just recently was trying to remember a step for irish dancing that I had learned many years ago, and just couldn't do it. I had to get the "right" music on, turn off my brain and let my legs just do it, then my brain remembered the step again.
Didn’t look at the link yet... (I hate reading Wikipedia on my phone.)
but what you described re: the dancing is known as muscle memory...
it’s also behind the concept of never forgetting how to ride a bike.
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6 hours ago, Kitiger said:
A friend of mine came in to work laughing. It seems she normally poured her coke into a water bottle to drink on the way to work. That morning, she opened the can of coke, and poured it into her purse!
I can honestly say that I have NOT 'been there, done that'.
Did I just jinx myself? ?
I’ve done similar things....
I’ve poured milk into
a cup of water sitting next to my bowl of cereal.
into a bowl or cup instead of into the measuring cup I meant to.
(While making dinner of hamburger helper) directly into the skillet of hamburger instead of the measuring cup.
I’ve also poured soda into a glass of water instead of the glass I wanted to.
I will say that I’ve never poured anything into my purse or any other place that wasn’t an otherwise normal receptacle. I mean other than accidentally— like knocking a glass over and the contents spill into my purse or whatever.
Didn’t look at the link yet... (I hate reading Wikipedia on my phone.)
but what you described re: the dancing is known as muscle memory...
it’s also behind the concept of never forgetting how to ride a bike.
Absolutely, that's what the link says (and I understand about not liking sites on mobile) it's the same thing though when you are driving - you know how to do it so well, your conscious mind doesn't need to engage, because your muscles know what to do without the input of your brain. It's overall a good thing, because you still will react to what you see, though it's always feared not as well.
In some ways too it's like being cortically blind - the eyes work, but the area receiving the info can't interpret it, so the person can't see, make sense of the input, but if obstacles are placed in front of them while walking, they will avoid them without knowing that's what they are doing! (it's pretty cool to watch)
Oddly, before I got my glasses last year (I've always been nearsighted, but so accustomed to things being blurry, but apparently as I get older, it's gotten worse) I would have a lot of issues with sleepiness and "hypnosis" behind the wheel. Since getting glasses, it's improved a lot. I think it's because I have visual input that is clearer to look at maybe? But I would sing and eat/drink when driving to keep me connected and awake.
Alarm fatigue, highway hypnosis, inattentional blindness are all related but slightly different, all from your brain's magic ways of dealing with the insane amount of input we have.
Alarm fatigue: your brain gets trained that the alarm is not important (because it's not been important) so in the future, it anticipates it won't be important, which allows you to "ignore" it.
Highway hypnosis/muscle memory/automaticity: Your brain recognizes that this is something it knows how to do already, it knows how to do it well, and doesn't need higher cognitive input (I've read that it is because your theta brain waves are much higher during activities like this - it's almost like meditation)
Inattentional blindness: We've been told (either explicitly or via experience) that we should see certain things (or look for certain things) so the brain says "ok, I'll concentrate on those things" and disregards the rest, even if it is something crazy. That's why those videos will always tell you to watch the "primary" activity or what's going to happen in the normal part of the video. If you don't know why you are watching it, your brain will be looking for more information for context. Certain things will pop us out of it, if there is danger, something that seems like it might be associated in a meaningful way with what we're doing. Like if you are counting the number of ball bounces, your brain doesn't care who is bouncing the ball, and anything else happening if it is non-threatening, it just focuses on counting the bounces and ignore things that would distract from that task.
But they really are all functions of how our brain can deal with the immense amount of information we receive every day and still try and function.
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My best friend is getting a divorce and I am worried about her. I was thinking about her this morning on my way to work, a trip I take daily, same route, same speed, same car, same destination. This morning I missed my exit somehow, because I was preoccupied thinking about my friend. Odd thing is that nothing south of my exit is in my normal routine in any way, shape or form, so I wound up lost for a minute finding my way back.
It definitely happens, moreso now that I am over 40.
A friend of mine came in to work laughing. It seems she normally poured her coke into a water bottle to drink on the way to work. That morning, she opened the can of coke, and poured it into her purse!
I can honestly say that I have NOT 'been there, done that'.
Did I just jinx myself? ?
That's a good one, it gave me a chuckle. I have found things in the refrigerator that aren't meant to be in there, like a pot holder.
This just happened to my husband! He spent 25 minutes looking for a bottle in the garage then came and got me. I literally walked out there and found it on his workbench in a minute.... right in front of him. Literally right in front of his hand. So crazy!
(and I understand about not liking sites on mobile) it's the same thing though when you are driving - you know how to do it so well, your conscious mind doesn't need to engage, because your muscles know what to do without the input of your brain. It's overall a good thing, because you still will react to what you see, though it's always feared not as well. 
Duranie
84 Posts
Didn’t look at the link yet... (I hate reading Wikipedia on my phone.)
but what you described re: the dancing is known as muscle memory...
it’s also behind the concept of never forgetting how to ride a bike.