Facts about Famous Gorilla Experiment
- 05
Participants in the gorilla experiment who were counting passes for one team were so cognitively loaded that many also missed other changes, like a curtain color shift, in follow-up studies.
- 04
In a variation of the gorilla experiment, participants who were told to expect something unexpected were significantly more likely to notice the gorilla, demonstrating that prior knowledge can override inattentional blindness.
- 03
Simons and Chabris conducted the gorilla experiment at Harvard University, building on earlier inattentional blindness research by Ulric Neisser.
- 02
Published in 1999, the Simons and Chabris gorilla study became a landmark demonstration of inattentional blindness, a phenomenon where focused attention prevents conscious perception of unexpected stimuli.
- 01
The selective attention test by Daniel Simons and Christopher Chabris showed that roughly half of participants failed to notice a person in a gorilla suit walking through a basketball-passing scene.