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NARRATOR: Pay attention.
This is a test.
Try to count the number of footballs, like this one,
as they fly across the screen.
You have 10 seconds.
Ready?
Go!
Did you count all 27 footballs?
It's not easy, but the funny thing is,
you didn't need to count any of them to get the right answer.
Want to find out why?
Stick around.
This is a show about your brain, and how often it loses focus.
[whistle blows]
For the next half hour, we're going to mess with your mind,
as we put you through a series of games and experiments
designed to put your attention to the ultimate test.
MAN: And go.
WOMAN: Hey!
NARRATOR: Your brain will be confused.
MAN: Did you fall for that that time?
NARRATOR: Your eyes will be deceived.
And if you play along, you will improve your focus...
on Brain Games.
Think about your average day
between work and home and traffic and shopping
and cell phones and Facebook and Twitter and bills and the kids.
How does your brain even know what to concentrate on first?
NARRATOR: What better place to put your attention to the test
than a football game?
It's a blitz on the senses
with lots of information coming at you at once.
But among all this chaos, players and fans must find a way
to tune out all the distractions and focus on the game.
Concentration can feel pretty elusive sometimes,
and even when you have it, it can be hard to sustain.
So what exactly is concentration?
It's your visual and your mental focus working together.
Want to see what we mean?
Pay attention to this receiver going out for a pass,
and see if you notice anything out of the ordinary.
Are you watching closely?
COACH: Great catch, son.
JASON: Thank you.
And just like with these football players,
it takes practice and repetition to improve your focus.
With all the distractions that exist today,
you're gonna need it.
For example, if you were paying attention,
you would have noticed that it was actually number 85
who caught the ball.
Did we trick you?
When number 85 dropped out of frame,
we used a movie stunt trick and I took his place.
Most people fail to notice the switch,
even though we highlighted the player
you were supposed to keep your eyes on.
It's because your brain can only concentrate
on one thing at a time and is easily distracted.
This is just like our first test with the flying footballs.
How could you possibly know the number of footballs
without counting them?
Because the answer was hidden in plain sight--
right on the scoreboard.
While you were focused on
what your brain thought was important--
counting the footballs--
you missed some vital information.
Don't worry if you didn't catch that.
We're going to teach you to improve your focus.
Right, guys?
PLAYERS: Yeah!
[chanting]
NARRATOR: Psychologist Brian Scholl is the director
of the Yale Perception and Cognition Laboratory,
and he's spent more than 15 years
studying how our brains decide just what to focus on.
BRIAN: The brain is constantly bombarded
by far more information than it can handle.
If we tried to process all of it,
we'd be completely paralyzed.
As a result, we have to attend to only a small part
of what's in front of us at any given moment.
Sometimes attention can fail and we lose focus.
This is what happens in what we call inattentional blindness.
[growls]
JASON: Pay attention.
You're about to be tested.
For this game you get to be the referee
and judge whether the kicker is able to put the football
between those two yellow uprights, 20 yards away.
Tracking a small moving object at a distance
might be difficult, so watch the ball closely.
[whistle blows]
CHEERLEADERS: Spirit! Let's hear it!
S-P-I-R-I-T, spirit!
JASON: So was the field goal good or not?
As the replay shows, it's good!
Pretty easy, right?
But while you were watching the kick,
did you happen to notice which cheerleaders
took off their tops?
If you're looking for the rewind button, don't worry.
We'll do it for you.
Yep, there they are.
While you were zeroed in on the kick,
you missed three cheerleaders stripping down
at the bottom of the screen.
Don't be surprised if you missed it.
We took advantage of a loophole in your brain.
If you could rewind real life,
you'd be shocked at how often inattentional blindness
causes you to miss things
happening right in front of your eyes.
For example, have you ever pulled in to your driveway
and realized you don't remember a single thing
about the drive home?
We've all done that.
Now you can't blame your brain for missing the cheerleaders.
It was busy doing exactly what we asked it to do--
focus on the football.
And it wasn't just your brain that had to focus.
Your eyes had to do some focusing of their own.
In order to smoothly track the moving football during the kick,
your eyes had to stay continually fixed
on a small, fast-moving object.
In fact, your eyes do this for you thousands of times a day,
from driving a car to watching a movie.
It's called smooth pursuit.
Smooth pursuit is a survival tool hardwired into your brain.
[roars]
Long before there were teams called the Bears and the Lions,
man had to survive alongside actual bears and lions.
Smooth pursuit helped our ancestors
spot a fast-approaching predator.
So maybe you didn't fall for our last game,
but this next one is going to be harder.
It's a test of your attention.
As you're about to see, your attention is like a spotlight,
and you can only shine it on one thing at a time.
To put your attentional spotlight to the ultimate test,
we've brought in deception specialist Apollo Robbins
to really mess with your head.
APOLLO: Most people think everything you see
is within your field of vision.
But actually your attentional spotlight
is only the size of your fingernail.
That means it's 1/1,000 of your field of view.
But I'll give you a fair chance.
I'll use something larger, like a playing card.
NARRATOR: Apollo is a master at misdirecting your attention.
No matter how closely you watch him, he still might fool you.
APOLLO: Your name, sir? RUDD: Rudd.
APOLLO: Rudd? RUDD: Rudd, yeah.
APOLLO: Okay! Rudd, Coco, here we go.
NARRATOR: To begin, Apollo chooses
the ace of hearts at random
and has one of our subjects write her name on it
so he can't simply swap in a duplicate card.
Now watch closely.
APOLLO: Here we go.
We'll just put this inside.
Rudd, try to keep an eye on this for me.
Just use your right hand.
Put your hand on top there.
Is that it? That's not it, is it?
RUDD: Nope.
JASON: Rudd is looking for the ace
he thinks is in the deck.
APOLLO: Now, Rudd, lift your hand up.
Is it that second card right here?
RUDD: Nope. APOLLO: No.
APOLLO: You're a keen observer, Rudd.
Was it either of those two?
RUDD: Nope.
JASON: Have you spotted the ace yet?
There it is.
But this guy still hasn't seen it.
APOLLO: Rudd, we'll keep doing this till you get it.
Eventually, I'm sure you will.
Was it either of those two?
RUDD: Nope. APOLLO: No, okay.
JASON: It's because his brain's attentional spotlight
can only focus on the cards right in front of him.
Even though the ace is in his field of vision,
his brain doesn't see it-- until now!
APOLLO: Oh, there we go.
JASON: So how quickly did you see the ace?
Did you catch Apollo sticking it to his forehead
at the very beginning of the trick?
Let's rewind and take another look.
When you decide to concentrate on something,
such as the cards in Apollo's hands,
your eyes stop scanning the environment for stimuli
and your brain's attentional spotlight narrows.
Apollo knows this.
All he had to do was direct your attention away
while he palmed the card and stuck it to his forehead.
Simple, right?
Yet you missed it.
And so did the people sitting a foot away from him.
The smaller the beam of your attentional spotlight,
the better your brain is at appreciating the fine details
of what you're focusing on.
In other words, narrow focus means high definition.
But Apollo knew where your spotlight would be,
and he exploited it,
causing you to miss something right in front of you.
On average, it took our subjects at least 30 seconds
to notice where the card had gone.
APOLLO: It's definitely--but you wrote your name on it, right?
Oh, there it is. I'm sorry.
MAN: I think, in general, I pay attention pretty well.
I definitely, definitely think he could have gone through
a bunch more cards before I noticed.
JASON: When it comes to your attentional spotlight,
you probably assume you only see what your eye is taking in.
But the light entering your eye
is just the first piece of the puzzle.
The real magic is what your brain does
with that information.
Without your brain's visual cortex
making sense of everything,
the world would appear to you
like a random collection of colors and shapes.
JASON: This is the raw data your eyes actually take in.
And this is what you see
when your brain stitches it all together.
Sounds like a pretty flawless system, right?
Think again.
Even with your eyes and brain working together perfectly,
there are still limitations.
For example, you probably think that if your eyes see something,
your brain can't un-see it, right?
Not exactly.
We're about to blow your mind
with nothing more than a few footballs.
See the four footballs on the screen?
All you have to do is pick one and stare directly at it.
That's it.
Don't let your eyes flicker to any of the other footballs.
Are you focused on one?
Good.
Keep looking at it, because right about now
something strange should be happening.
Are the other footballs fading?
Have any of them disappeared completely?
We promise you, we aren't altering the image in any way.
The footballs aren't disappearing from the screen.
They're disappearing from your brain.
And the reason why will amaze you.
BRIAN: It's because your brain decided
that it wasn't in the world to begin with.
Because the light sensitive part of your eye
is actually in the very back of the eyeball,
it's up to your brain to figure out
what stimulation is coming from the world
and what's coming from inside your own eye.
In this case, because the football stayed fixed
in the same position
and didn't play along with the rest of the motion,
your brain decides that the football
isn't in the world in the first place, and poof, it's gone.
JASON: It's not just your brain
that can miss things when it's trying to be helpful.
The structure of your eye can also lead you to see
less than you think.
BRIAN: The fovea takes up less than 5%
of the surface of your eye.
But 50% of your brain's visual cortex
is devoted to processing what the fovea delivers.
This is why your fovea produces
such a sharp, high-definition image.
The other 95% of your eye, your peripheral vision,
is very low resolution, like a cell phone camera from 1998.
JASON: You have to ask yourself,
if everything outside the center of your gaze is blurry,
can you trust what you see?
Let's find out.
Professor Brian Scholl has come to this college campus
to put peripheral vision to the test.
He's going to ask our volunteers to stare at this X,
forcing them to use only their peripheral vision.
You can play along with the volunteers on this one.
BRIAN: Come on over.
Nathaniel, this is Sadie.
Sadie is holding a big, white X.
NATHANIEL: Big X.
BRIAN: In just a minute
I'm going to ask you to close your eyes.
While your eyes are closed,
we're going to bring out two more cheerleaders.
When I say go, you're gonna open your eyes for one second,
then close them again.
NATHANIEL: Okay.
BRIAN: While your eyes are open,
you are going to stare at that white X.
That white X is your entire world now, okay?
And then after your eyes are closed,
you are going to choose one of the two other cheerleaders
to be on Sadie's team. You got it?
NATHANIEL: Sounds good. BRIAN: Eyes closed.
JASON: Sounds pretty simple, right?
All our volunteers need to do is use their peripheral vision
to pick the prettier cheerleader.
BRIAN: You ready?
Go.
NATHANIEL: Right.
BRIAN: Fantastic. Let's have group two.
You ready?
NATHANIEL: Yep.
BRIAN: And go.
NATHANIEL: Right.
BRIAN: Group three, please.
JASON: So, have you noticed anything weird?
Let's see the test from a different angle.
Nathaniel is only 10 feet away,
but his peripheral vision isn't good enough
to catch that half of the cheerleaders are guys!
In case you didn't notice, one of each pair is a dude.
And if you did, your peripheral vision is truly exceptional.
We're going to run this test on a few more volunteers.
Do you think they'll catch what's going on?
BRIAN: Go.
RUSSELL: Um, left.
[buzzer]
Um, right.
[ding]
BRIAN: And go.
It's your choice.
CRAIG: Left. [buzzer]
Right. [buzzer]
BRIAN: How you feeling about your choices?
NATHANIEL: Pretty fantastic. RUSSELL: Pretty good.
BRIAN: Alright.
Let's have you close your eyes one more time, please.
NATHANIEL: Oh, boy. RUSSELL: Okay.
BRIAN: Let's bring out Nathaniel's cheerleading team.
[cheering]
NATHANIEL: Oh, no. Oh, no.
BRIAN: What do you think?
NATHANIEL: Uh, they're just the perfect squad.
Lots of strength.
JASON: Nathaniel and Russell each picked
two girls and two guys.
BRIAN: It turns out that the vast majority
of our visual field
is extremely blurry, fuzzy, very low resolution.
Only the smallest part of our visual field
is actually in high definition.
RUSSELL: I never thought that my peripheral vision was that bad.
JASON: Which goes to show your peripheral vision
is so weak at resolving detail,
you have no better than a 50/50 chance.
BRIAN: Alright.
JASON: Except for Craig--
his peripheral vision is a perfect 100%.
BRIAN: Why don't you guys open your eyes and see how Craig did?
JASON: 100% wrong.
Yep, he picked up a full lineup of dudes.
CRAIG: Oh, man!
NATHANIEL: Eyes of a tiger.
RUSSELL: The dream team right there.
JASON: None of our volunteers caught on
that half the people they were looking at were guys.
Now, you may be thinking,
there's no way you'd fall for this if you were there.
You would never miss something so obvious as bulging muscles,
hairy legs and beards.
NATHANIEL: When I first opened my eyes,
I initially saw hair color, skin, width, height.
And that was really all, because it was just a blur.
JASON: But while you might be laughing at these guys,
let's see if you can do any better.
In just a minute, you'll get a chance
to pick which cheerleader is actually a girl.
Let's just hope your peripheral vision
doesn't let you down like it did them.
JASON: Our last experiment revealed
just how weak peripheral vision is at seeing detail.
And if you think yours is better,
here's your chance to prove it.
You need to stare straight ahead at this X.
In a second, we'll show you two cheerleaders.
All you need to do is pick which one is a woman.
Don't cheat and look away from the X.
Ready?
And...make your pick.
So?
Which one did you choose?
If you picked the one on the right, you chose pretty wisely.
But if you picked the one on the left, you might not be so happy.
Yep, that's a dude.
We gave you the easy one first,
so if you're feeling good about yourself,
get ready for the next one.
Okay.
Stare straight at the X, and make your pick.
Which one did you pick this time?
If you chose the one on the right,
good job!
If you picked the one on the left again...
[buzzer]
...you've just learned something profound
about your sense of vision.
This test reveals just how much of your field of vision
is an illusion.
Your brain creates a seamless high-resolution field of view
because your eyes are simply incapable of delivering it
on their own.
JASON: But it's not all bad.
Your peripheral vision is the way it is for a reason.
BRIAN: The good news is that our peripheral vision
has other strengths, like detecting motion
and seeing dim, uncolored patterns,
especially when they happen quickly.
This is what allows a quarterback
to make good sense of the entire field during a game,
or for a person driving a car to notice someone in the next lane.
For them, it doesn't matter if it's a man or a woman.
They just need to keep from getting rear-ended or tackled.
JASON: So the next time you're driving,
or watching the game,
you have to ask yourself,
where should I direct my visual focus?
And place my attentional spotlight?
Am I in control, or is my brain on autopilot?
We've put your eyes and your brain
through a series of tests and games,
and now it's time to see if your focus has improved.
Have you ever watched a movie or TV show
and noticed how sometimes an actor's beer mug
will go from full to empty to full again,
or an actress' hairstyle will change slightly
in the same scene?
Well, those are called continuity errors,
and they result from cutting together many takes
to create one continuous scene.
JASON: And one of the most common continuity errors
involves food.
Because the actors are actually eating,
it can be nearly impossible to match what's on their plates
from take to take.
It's time for another test of your focus.
We've set up a scene with our actors
having dinner at a restaurant.
All you have to do is track how many times their meals change.
Remember, stay focused on their plates.
MAN: Cafe Changes, take two.
JASON: Are you ready to play?
Let's begin.
WOMAN: It's been a really long time.
MAN: You still look the same.
WOMAN: I do?
MAN: You're even more beautiful.
WOMAN: I see you're still the same old charmer.
MAN: I feel like nothing's changed.
WOMAN: I got divorced.
MAN: Sometimes the thing you're looking for
is right in front of your face and you just can't see it.
Kiss me, baby.
JASON: So, how many changes did you spot on their plates?
Let's rewind and take another look.
She begins with a salad, which becomes a massive lobster,
and then magically, some chocolate cake.
His pork chop becomes chicken with vegetables,
but suddenly his plate is empty.
Chances are, you caught those changes.
But did you happen to notice the 10 other things that changed
right in front of your face?
You may have caught a few, but we bet you missed a lot of them.
While you were paying attention to their plates,
deception specialist Apollo Robbins
was changing the props and the actors' wardrobes.
First, she got a flower, then a new hairstyle.
She also lost her necklace and changed her shirt.
He changed his glasses and tie, along with his sweater.
And the flowers next to him got a serious trim.
Oh, and did you notice he also grew hair?
MAN: Kiss me, baby.
JASON: The question isn't
how did you miss something so obvious,
but how can you take what you've learned
about your brain's ability to focus
and use it to your advantage?
APOLLO: Have you found what you're looking for?
JASON: All you have to do is pay attention.
We're going to give you one more chance to test your focus.
Pay attention.
Follow the card
as Apollo Robbins tries to misdirect you.
APOLLO: Now if we put this inside the deck,
we can see about where it is.
It's right there inside the center.
Yet, my job is to be able to track that card
and know where it is all the time
and to get it somewhere close by.
Would you try this yourself?
If you were to guess where it is right now,
where would you say it is?
WOMAN: I would probably say the middle.
APOLLO: The middle? Okay.
JASON: Are you watching the deck for that ace?
APOLLO: Would you point to where you think it is right now?
WOMAN: Uh, well it should be around here.
JASON: Do you agree?
Have you spotted the ace of diamonds?
APOLLO: Go ahead and take a look.
We'll give you a timing.
If you can find it in less than three seconds,
I'll give you the $100 bill.
WOMAN: I'm sorry, but I can't find it.
APOLLO: It's actually underneath the $100 bill,
right underneath the glass.
I believe that's it right here, isn't it?
WOMAN: Hey!