Question

You are running an experiment similar to the study by Simons and Chabris (1999). You ask participants to attend to a scene in which a team of basketball players are passing a ball back and forth among each other. You instruct the participants to count the number of times the ball is passed from one player to the other. You find that while participants are attending to this task, many do not notice a person in a gorilla suit that dances across the scene. This finding illustrates _________.

Answer 1

This finding illustrates that the participants were selectively attentive.

Explanation:

• When the participants were directed to pay attention to the ball and count the number of times the ball is passed, the brain devoted itself to consider nothing else important but the ball.
• The act of counting the passes fetched the attention of the participants as they directed their brains by commanding it to restrict its attention solely on the ball. This trait of the brain is known as selective attention.