Reddit reviews The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us
We found 8 Reddit comments about The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us. Here are the top ones, ranked by their Reddit score.
Broadway Books
Not only are humans horrible at remembering, they can also be horrible at seeing. Take a look at this clip Selective attention test
EDIT: The Invisible Gorilla is a pretty interesting book about how your brain fools you
You will probably be interested in this book. http://www.amazon.com/The-Invisible-Gorilla-Intuitions-Deceive/dp/0307459667
Click the "used" tab and you can grab a copy for around $8.
After reading, you'll never trust yourself again. ;)
Yes, a lot, for various definitions of "easily accessible".
Let's first assume, you have some kind of academic education or background. In this case, you're like most psych students who would usually start with a text book. I'm not an English speaker, so my experience is limited (and outdated). However, a quick search leads me to suggest:
Of course, textbooks are not what a friend of mine would call "bathtub books". They need to be read with attention and dedication. The advantage is that you get a comprehensive overview. Which might be what you want if you're considering to study psychology.
If you're looking for books that are closer to bookstore bestsellers, the problem is that there's too much one could recommend. Psychology is such a vast field, and most books only pick a few sections (often to sell the author's personal ideas).
Rather than trying to make specific recommendation for every possible topic, here's a very short introduction.
Basically, you can think about psychology as an apartment building with four main stories or floors.
Now, questions asked on one floor are obviously related to questions on other (lower) floors. People who work in the second floor may emphasize other approaches in the ground floor than people working in the first or third floor.
It's therefore helpful to also imagine that these floors are inhabited by different teams or coalitions of psychologists. Some teams are mostly situated in one or at most two floors. Others have apartments in all floors.
And, of course, the constellation keeps on changing. Some teams who once dominated one or more floors now find themselves with only a couple of apartments, and maybe the closet.
This is what happened to the team called "psychoanalysis" which was founded by people like Freud and Jung. It's probably fair to say that most psychologists today think that their work in the ground floor (the methodological floor) was not quite persuasive. Therefore I would advise against reading books by Freud or Jung, unless you're specifically interested in psychoanalysis, or the history of psychology.
Another team which once dominated the second floor, but mostly lost it again, is called behaviourism. Although their insights and methods are still in use, they stumbled due to a decision made in the ground floor (namely to reduce the second floor to a single apartment called 'behavior'). This turned out to be too cramped for most psychologists, so this aspect is nowadays mostly ignored.
Today, the second floor is mostly dominated and inhabited by cognitive psychology, I'd say. Unless, you have other interests, I recommend this one as a good place to start.
From there, it's easier to explore other floors. Going up to the third floor, for instance, you'll find it mostly dominated by social psychology (as least as far as the building called 'psychology' is concerned). Going down into the first floor, you'll find neuropsychology and evolutionary psychology; the latter still quite young and in some quarters still quite controversial.
That said, my standard recommendation for getting started in cognitive psychology is:
It's a fast tour through the basic sections of the (cognitive) mind – attention, perception, memory, judgment – and, more importantly, the many ways it goes wrong. Although it probably wasn't written to be a readable and short introduction to cognitive psychology, I think it works quite well as such.
After reading it, you should be able to ask a central and important question: If humans make so many mistakes, how can psychologists (in particular, but also scientists, in general) prevent making these themselves? This basic question brings you straight to the ground floor from which most of psychology's history can be understood.
Hope this helps.
Check out The Invisible Gorilla. It's more of a psychology book but it is about ways in which overconfidence affects behavior so it is very much applicable to economics and I found it very interesting and fun to read.
Visual cognitive psychologist here. This work was actually done by Dan Simons, and refers to an effect known as "Change Blindness". Basically, when we're paying attention to something we fail to see things that are right in front of us. It's a beautiful example of how the world around us isn't actually what we see - there's simply too much information in an image received by our retinas for our brain to process. In order to deal with this challenge our mind has come up with "mental shortcuts" in order to make sense of the world. In this case, since we're so engaged in a task (i.e. counting the number of passes), we shift attentional resources that would otherwise allow us to "see" the gorilla enter the scene.
A better (and more recent) version of the video is here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IGQmdoK_ZfY - it includes some other types of changes, many of which even if you know about the Gorilla most people will fail to notice.
My personal favorite, which I use in a lot of instructional lectures as well, is "The Door Study" - https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FWSxSQsspiQ - fun fact, this effect exists even when the confederates swap gender (i.e. a person is first confronted with a man, and then he is swapped out for a woman).
Also worth mentioning, Dan Simons wrote a book called "The Invisible Gorilla" aimed at explaining a lot of these kinds of phenomena towards the general public. If you find this kind of thing interesting, it's definitely worth checking out: http://www.amazon.com/The-Invisible-Gorilla-Intuitions-Deceive/dp/0307459667
1.) Something that is grey: Sculpy! From my cosplay wishlist! :D
2.) Something reminiscent of rain: This hair accessory from my Silly Fun list! I don't know if they're meant to, but the blue bits remind me of raindrops. <3
3.) Something food related that is unusual: Food picks from my Silly Fun list! Maybe not super unusual in Japan, but here in America I doubt you'd see them often.
4.) Something on your list that is for someone other than yourself: This book off my Books wishlist of course! It's for my husband, who's a huge fan of the Elder Scrolls games. I like them, too, but I doubt I'd ever read this.
5.) A book I should read: The Invisible Gorilla, again, off my Books list. I read almost a third of this book while hidden in a book store one day. It's an absolutely fascinating study (or rather, collection of studies) about how much trust we place in our own faulty intuitions.
6.) An item that is less than a dollar, including shipping... that is not jewelry, nail polish, and or hair related: Barely, but this nautical star decal! Unfortunately, it's not on any of my lists.
7.) Something related to cats: Another from my Books wishlist! I'm pretty sure I already know my cat wants to kill me, but this book looks funny anyway.
8.) Something that is not useful, but so beautiful you must have it: Stationary, from my Silly Fun list. I have no one to write to, but I have an obsession with pretty stationary and cards and things. I'm usually too afraid to write on it, even, because nothing ever seems worthy of the pretty paper...
9.) A movie everyone should watch at least once in their life: From my Movies/TV list: Braveheart! Because FREEEDOOOOOOM!!!!!
10.) Something that would be useful when the zombies attack. Explain: Survival knife from my Adventure wishlist! Secluded, unpopulated areas are best for hiding from zombies, and this thing even comes with a firestarter! HOW CAN YOU SAY NO?
11.) Something that would have a profound impact on your life and help you to achieve your current goals: This book which is, strangely, on my Semi-Practical list. I'm a Math/Physics major, but I haven't been in school in quite a while. I'm about to go back very soon, and I'm a little petrified of failing out.
12.) One of those pesky Add-On items: Red Heart yarn from my Crochet wishlist!
13.) The most expensive thing on your list. Your dream item: The PS4 from my Video Games list. I'm an avid gamer. Video games are how I relax. It's one of the few things that, no matter how crappy my day was, always manages to raise my spirits and help me forget about it all.
14.) Something bigger than a bread box: Apparently bread boxes are way bigger than I thought, so I'll go with this desk off my Semi-Practical wishlist. Surely that's big enough! XD
15.) Something smaller than a golf ball: Turtle earrings off my Silly Fun list! THEY'RE SO CUTE!
16.) Something that smells wonderful: Teavana's Blueberry Bliss tea off my Silly Fun list (yet again). If you've never been in a Teavana store, go this second and just...inhale. <3
17.) A (SFW) toy: Frog mitt from my Practical list. I'm fairly certain this isn't supposed to be a toy, but I get the feeling I'm going to spend more time using it as a puppet than as an oven mitt.
18.) Something that would be helpful for going back to school: This backpack from my Semi-Practical list! I want it so badly!! IT'S STUDIO GHIBLI HOW AWESOME IS THAT?
19.) Something related to your current obsession, whatever that may be: 12 Hole Ocarina from my Ocarina wishlist. It's so beautiful and it comes with a Lord of the Rings songbook and I just LOVE IT SO MUCH.
20.) Something that is just so amazing and awe-inspiring that I simply must see it. Explain why it is so grand: Shark sleeping bag from my Silly Fun wishlist! You need me to explain it's awesome?? REALLY? IT'S A SHARK SLEEPING BAG. It looks like the shark is eating you!! Plus it's called the "Chumbuddy" and that just makes me laugh way harder than it should.
Fear cuts deeper than swords!
Those are good book recommendations. Amazon links for the lazy:
Holy shit, relax! What about me making a mistake makes me a fucking low life?
People make this mistake often. It's not because the biker is less important, it's because he's less visible. It is a common mistake sitting at a light in stagnant traffic, and not seeing anyone in your mirror or to your side, make a move into the turn lane because you realize this is your turn (most common) or to make a u-turn if you realized you missed a turn or need to go back the other way (slightly less common). Both of these mistakes become mistakes when the driver assumes by (a) the empty space next to them, (b) nothing in their side mirror, and (c) the fact that they're sitting still all adds up to no harm in moving over or turning around. That's why blind spot checking is important, but there's nothing malicious or selfish about that lack of action, as stupid as it may be to not do so and as harmful as the consequences might have turned out. A metric fuckton of people forget to check their blind spots on a regular basis, and there are tons of stories to be told of near misses just as there are also tons of non-events in which failure to check the blind spot resulted in no harm because the blind spot was conveniently empty. You can read more about these kinds of mistakes in The Invisible Gorilla.
For anyone who thinks I'm defending asshole cab drivers and people who are aggressive toward bicyclists and motorcyclists, I'm not. I ride both on my days off and I'm very empathetic to the guys who are hit or scared shitless on a regular basis, because I am one of them. I'm not saying my mistakes were harmless; quite the opposite. I'd be a fool to not learn from them. My first comment and every one of my replies to it is based on the fact that this is not karma but rather a mistake followed by coincidence. Karma is more of a return on intention; I see no ill intention here. Illegal, yes. Rightfully ticketed, yes. But a return on intention? That would be saying that the cab driver intentionally cut off the biker that he did see, flipped him the bird, and laughed as he drove away because he has 4 wheels and doors to protect him. Does anyone really think that's the case in this gif?