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Jason Silva: Stop, pay attention.
This photo is going to change.
See if you can spot all the changes taking place
in this photo in the next 10 seconds.
Ready?
Go.
Times up.
See anything change?
If you're like most viewers,
you probably noticed this airplane disappear
out of the sky.
You also might've seen the factory vanish into the
background over here.
And some of you who were really focused even
caught us change the time on the clock here.
If you saw all three of these changes,
congratulations.
Your sense of awareness is pretty good.
But don't celebrate yet because there were seven
other big changes that happened right
in front of your eyes.
How could you have missed all those changes?
It's not your TV that's to blame,
it's your brain.
This is a show about your brain and spatial awareness.
We're going to mess with your mind.
Man: That's crazy!
Jason Silva: As we put you through a series of games
and experiments.
Woman: I did not get that.
Jason Silva: Designed to test your sense of what's
going on around you.
You'll see how your brain has a hardwired
sense of direction.
Student: Then you're going to go three blocks east.
Jason Silva: And how sometimes you can lose touch
with your own body.
Whoa.
If you play along, you'll learn how to supercharge
your sense of awareness, so you can find out exactly
what's going on on Brain Games.
Everyday, whether you're fighting through traffic or
just trying to find the light switch in the morning,
there's a hidden system that's busy keeping track of
everything going on around you.
It's called spatial awareness and it's built
into to your brain.
If I asked you how good your spatial awareness is,
chances are you'd say it's pretty sharp.
After all, if you weren't aware of your surroundings,
you'd never really know where you were.
Which is why your brain is constantly tracking what's
going around you behind the scenes so you can
focus your attention on more important things.
For instance, you may have noticed quite a few changes
happening around me.
But can you tell what is the one thing,
besides me, that stayed the same?
Did you catch it?
The only thing that stayed the same was the brain.
Man: What?
Jason Silva: That was a test of your spatial memory,
but don't worry if you flunked.
The average adult can only store about 4 objects
at a time in their short-term spatial memory and
we swapped out nearly everything in the room when
you weren't looking.
But what if we were to make the switch right in front you?
Young Man: Uh?
Jason Silva: And you still didn't notice?
Young Man: Whoa.
Jason Silva: That's exactly what happened
in the first game.
Let's play it again.
Like before, the picture is going to change over the
next 10 seconds.
We already revealed three changes.
We'll give you one more chance to find the
other seven changes.
Ready?
Go.
So, did you notice a few more changes this time?
Here are all 10 changes.
Now even if you caught five changes,
that's pretty good.
Only 40% of the people we tested were able
to see that many!
A few viewers weren't aware of any changes at all.
Wondering what's going on?
All we did was slow down the changes in the picture
just enough for you to miss them.
So why are slower changes so easy to miss?
Your brain detects spatial changes using sensors
located in the parietal and frontal lobes which work
together like an air traffic control center.
And with so many changes happening all the time,
that control center gives priority to sudden,
more drastic changes to keep you safe,
alert, and flying straight.
But be careful, because this allows slower,
more subtle changes to sneak under the radar
of your conscious awareness.
Ouch!
So, just how much of your surroundings are you
not aware of?
To help answer that question,
we brought in Brian Scholl from the Yale Perception Lab.
Brian Scholl: Today we're going to play a game
specifically designed to test your spatial awareness.
Meet the Brain Games Double Dutch Team.
Now what does jumping rope have to do with the brain?
Well, Double Dutch requires off the chart
spatial awareness.
And today, these kids are going to help us test yours.
For this game, all you have to do is keep track of
the number of times that either of the girls
in green jumps.
You'll count each time one of them lands a jump,
like this.
Woman: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5.
Brian Scholl: As you can see,
these jumpers are pretty quick on their feet,
so you're going to have to pay attention to keep up.
When the whistle blows, start counting.
Ready?
Go.
[whistle]
So, how many jumps did the green team make?
Did you say 38?
If so, you agreed with 40% of our test audience.
Now some of you may be on to us,
but for those of you who weren't,
did you happen to notice anything else going on
during the Double Dutch?
Maybe a giant chicken strolling right through the
middle of the set and doing a funky chicken dance?
Now some of you may have missed that funky chicken,
but many of you probably saw it and that's okay because
the chicken was just there to distract you too.
Here's the real question,
what color was the wall behind the Double Dutch game?
Here's a hint it wasn't the same color at the end
as it was when they started jumping.
The back wall was changing color the entire time
from bright blue to bright red.
Nearly everyone misses it, but why?
It turns out there's far too much information coming
in through the eyes at any given moment for the
brain to fully process all of it.
As a result, the brain has to act like a spotlight
focusing our attention on some parts of the scene
but not others.
Now most of you were probably paying attention to
the jumpers and some of you may have suspected that
something strange was going to happen and so
you saw the chicken,
but you probably weren't paying attention
to the back wall.
And what we don't pay attention to,
we don't see.
And hey, for those of you who managed to catch
everything so far, did you notice that we also swapped
the rope turners out halfway through?
Gotcha!
Jason Silva: We've proven how much of the world you're
missing in plain sight.
Woman: Slow it down.
Jason Silva: So, is vision really that important to
your spatial awareness?
To find out, you're about to lose touch with
your own body.
Here's a game that will test your sense of your own
body in space.
First, put both of your hands up in the air above
your head like this.
Now, without looking at your hands,
spread your fingers wide apart on your left hand
like this.
Now, with your right hand,
I want you to point your index finger like this.
Now I want you to touch the tip of your nose and then go
to the tip of each of your fingers on your left hand
one at a time touching the tip of your nose
after each finger.
Easy enough, right?
Man: Uh-hmm.
Jason Silva: Ready?
Touch your nose.
Touch your left thumb, tip of your nose.
Touch your left index finger,
tip of your nose.
Not too hard, right?
Man: Uh-uh.
Jason Silva: Okay, good.
Let's see how these guys did and keep watching,
because it's going to get harder.
Okay, nose, left ring finger;
nose, pinky finger.
It wasn't, that wasn't too difficult, right?
Man: No, that was actually awesome.
Jason Silva: Okay.
Now I want you to close your eyes,
bring your hands up, spread your fingers.
All right.
Now take your right index finger and
bring it to your nose.
Now bring it to your left thumb.
Now back to your nose.
Man: Wait, wait, slow down.
Jason Silva: Now to your left index finger.
Now back to your nose.
Now you might be thinking, how are these people failing
at something that seems so simple?
Think you can do any better?
Okay, hands up, just like them.
This time, I want you to close your eyes.
Try to keep your left hand perfectly still
as you do it.
Ready?
Okay, touch your nose.
Touch your left thumb.
Touch the tip of your nose.
Touch your left index finger,
tip of your nose, left middle finger.
Ha, ha, not so easy this time, was it?
Did you suddenly find that you couldn't find
your own fingers?
Pretty crazy, right?
These people have been at it for a while.
Bring it to your left index finger if you can find it.
Man: Oh, there it is.
Yeah, got it.
Jason Silva: Why is this so tough?
It all has to do with what some say is our sixth sense.
Nose.
Woman: I did not get that.
Jason Silva: Middle finger.
Scientists call it proprioception.
It's your brain's automatic system for sensing
the position of your body in space.
It's how you're able to eat a snack while keeping your
eyes focused on the TV.
But don't blink,
because your brain still needs visual information
about your surroundings to back up your sense of
body awareness.
That's why when we took away your ability to see,
your brain momentarily lost track of your own fingers.
So while body awareness is your brain's ability to
keep track of your arms, legs, fingers,
and toes on an internal map,
your brain is also hard at work tracking your entire
body's location within a given environment.
To demonstrate how this works,
let's play another game.
Hold on tight and pay close attention.
In a moment, we're going to twist and turn
through this mineshaft.
Your job is to remember how to get to the gold.
Here we go.
Okay.
We've shown you where to find the gold.
Now you have to find it on your own.
Which one of these maps matches the route
you just took?
Was it A, B, C, or D?
Got your answer?
Stick around to see if your sense of direction
will help you strike gold.
Jason Silva: A moment ago, we took you on a ride
through this gold mine.
We'll show you where the gold is on more time.
Keep track of where you're going.
You will be tested.
Here we go.
Okay, there's the gold, but it's not yours yet.
There's only one way to stake your claim,
A, B, C, or D.
Got your answer?
If you said C, congratulations.
You've got a keen sense of direction.
If you got tripped up, don't sweat it,
so did 50% of the people we tested.
The good news is, your brain can actually
improve your sense of direction through
repetition and practice.
And the reason why is because your brain is
biologically designed to do just that.
Brian Scholl: Our sense of location
and proximity to other people,
otherwise known as our spatial awareness,
are specific skills that we think helped us to survive
in our ancestral environments.
Imagine it's thousands of years ago
on the African Savanna.
You're in the middle of fleeing from a predator or
from dangerous weather.
To find your way back home, well, these days
you just punch home into your GPS.
But back then, all we had to rely on was our
primal sense of direction.
Jason Silva: This built-in navigation system is powered
by the hippocampus, the same part of your
brain in charge of recording new memories and
it's how your brain creates a detailed mental model
of the outside world, from your hallway to the highway.
It isn't a flawless system.
With so much information bombarding your senses at
all times, it's easy to lose track of things you've seen
or forget details unless you put your senses
to work for you.
Stop, pay attention.
We're going to give you 10 seconds to memorize as many
of the objects as you can in this room.
The guy who lives here obviously leads
an interesting life.
He'd certainly want to replace his belongings if
anything went missing.
[glass breaking]
Uh-oh.
Now you're at the scene of a crime.
Pay attention.
Let's see if your powers of awareness make
you a good witness.
The owner needs your help notifying his insurance company.
So which seven of his belongings are missing?
You have ten seconds to identify which
seven belongings the burglar stole.
Ready?
Go.
Times up.
So, how did you do?
Before we reveal the missing items,
let's see how you compare to other viewers.
Woman: The teeth.
Man: The hat.
Woman 2: Um?
Woman 3: I can't remember.
I don't know, I don't know.
This is embarrassing.
Jason Silva: As you can see,
most people only got one or two correct.
Let's see how you did.
Were you able to recall most of the missing items?
Some of them, any of them?
If you're like most viewers,
you only remembered a couple of items.
Woman: Something else was on the table.
Jason Silva: What if I told you a few witnesses
scored nearly twice as high?
Man: The top hat, the football, uh, the teeth.
Man 2: The cordless house phone, the vase,
the football, the top hat.
Jason Silva: Who are these awareness superstars?
[makes electric guitar sound]
What if I told you their memory was no better than
yours, that all we did was give them one simple
tip that you can use too?
A trick so simple it will blow your mind and make you
a master of memory.
[laughing]
Man 3: Wow, this is awesome.
Jason Silva: A moment ago,
you witnessed a burglary.
You saw the room before the crime and then we asked
you to recall which seven items went missing.
If you were able to recall three or more of the
missing belongings, you did better than most viewers.
Woman: Um?
Jason Silva: Now, we promised you a simple trick
that can double your ability to remember anything.
So what's the big secret?
It's called sensory mnemonics.
All you have to do is attach a sense memory to
whatever you're trying to remember.
These viewers caught on quickly.
Woman 2: The football, you'd feel the sort of the
leather, the pigskin.
Woman: Oh, a stinky top hat from a magician.
Man: The guitar.
[imitates electric guitar sound].
So that would be the sound.
Woman 2: The way these things feel,
the way they sound, they would absolutely help
me remember it better.
Jason Silva: Got it?
Let's play again and this time,
try to remember as many objects as you can
using sensory associations.
Ready?
Go.
Looks like our perp isn't a cat burglar,
but he did nab 7 of the homeowner's other belongings.
Can you recall what they were?
You've got ten seconds.
Time's up.
The missing items were the saddle, clock,
pool balls, candles, the cowboy hat;
the surfboard, and finally, the television.
So how did you do this time?
Most viewers remembered 4 or 5 objects
with the addition of the sensory mnemonic,
nearly doubling their previous score.
Now it's because the same part of your brain that
handles your senses also helps make new memories.
So if you were robbed, would you remember which of
your belongings were stolen?
While sensory mnemonics is a great memory device,
it's hard to remember everything,
which is why insurance companies like
Nationwide Insurance suggest making a list of your
belongings before disaster strikes.
Think you've honed your skills enough to pass our
ultimate test of awareness?
Has this ever happened to you?
You're on vacation.
You think you have your bearings,
but you turn a corner and suddenly you're lost.
The good news is you have a map.
The bad news is you have no idea where you are.
Pay close attention as this couple asks for
directions to the museum.
Woman: Excuse me, sir?
Jason Silva: And listen carefully,
because in a minute, you'll have to find the museum
on your own using this map.
Student: Yeah?
Woman: Do you live here?
Student: Yeah.
Woman: Okay, we're really lost.
Student: Okay, where are you trying to go?
Woman: The museum which I think is that way.
Am I right?
Student: No, it's definitely that way.
Woman: Oh okay.
Student: Let me see here.
First of all, you're upside down.
Man: Okay.
Student: Okay, so yeah, we're way down here.
All right, and you wanna be up here.
Woman: It's that way?
Student: Right so you're gonna head 5 blocks north.
Okay?
When you get to Joey's Pizza, make a right.
Man: Good, pizza's good.
Student: Yeah, then you're gonna go 3 blocks east.
Woman: Uh-hmm.
Student: Okay?
There's a hotdog cart on this corner.
You're gonna make a left at that hotdog cart.
And you're gonna go 3 blocks past this jazz club
and it's gonna be right in front of you.
You can't miss it.
Woman 2: Oh jazz, okay great.
Man: Great, okay, so I knew I was right about this.
So it's 5, 3 and 3?
Student: You got it.
Man: Awesome, great.
Thank you very much.
Woman: Thank you so much.
Man: Oh, wait.
Let me get a picture of you guys.
Thank you so much.
Jason Silva: Got it?
Now take a look at this map.
Listen one more time and see if you could follow these
directions to find your way to the museum.
Student: So, you're going to head 5 blocks north.
Woman: Right.
Student: Okay?
When you get to Joey's Pizza, make a right.
Woman: Pizza.
Man: Good, pizza's good.
Student: Yeah, then you're gonna go 3 blocks east.
Woman: Uh-hmm.
Student: Okay?
There's a hotdog cart on this corner.
You're going to make a left at that hotdog cart.
Woman: Uh-hmm.
Student: And you're gonna go 3 blocks past this
jazz club and it's going to be right in front of you.
You can't miss it.
Woman: Oh jazz, okay great.
Man: Great.
Jason Silva: So, were you able to follow the student's
directions to the museum?
If your brain mapping abilities were up to the
task, you would see that the directions the student
gave were spot on.
For those who followed along,
congratulations on having great spatial awareness.
There's just one problem.
Those tourists weren't really lost.
Student: No.
Jason Silva: In fact, they weren't students at all.
Student: C'mon!
Jason Silva: Instead of watching the student helping
a lost couple with directions,
you were watching a couple of pickpockets
helping themselves to the student's cell phone.
Student: 3 blocks east.
Jason Silva: Wallet.
Student: Make a left at that hotdog cart.
Jason Silva: And tablet.
Student: 3 blocks past his jazz club and
it's going to be right in front of you.
You can't miss it.
Woman: Oh jazz, okay great, thanks.
Student: Good luck, guys.
Woman: He was a really nice guy.
Jason Silva: Now did you catch any of that the
first time we showed it to you?
Probably not.
It just goes to show you should be aware of your
surroundings and beware of what you might be missing.
Student: No!
Jason Silva: Being acutely aware of your surroundings
sometimes requires you to just stop and listen.
So do that now.
Just stop and listen.
[train whistle]
Do you recall hearing that same train whistle
3 other times during this episode?
[train whistle]
Spread your fingers.
[train whistle]
Woman 2: I don't know, I don't know.
This is embarrassing.
Jason Silva: Ha, ha.
As you can see, when it comes to your awareness,
there's a thin line between being lost and found.
Hello?
How do I get out of here?
Where am I?