Perception

Count the Bounces

This exhibit demonstrates the way that attention affects what we do and do not see. The visitor watches a short video of a group of people bouncing and passing balls to each other and is asked to count the bounces. At the end of the video the visitor is then asked how many times the ball bounced and if they noticed anything "strange" happen. Upon watching the video again most visitors discover that they completely missed a very strange and seemingly obvious occurence due to the distraction of counting the bounces.