The Case of The Missing Gorilla

Curious Cases

BBC

Technology, Science

4.8 • 4.1K Ratings

🗓️ 16 August 2022

⏱️ 37 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

🧾️ Download transcript

Summary

DO WE HAVE YOUR ATTENTION? Good! But how does that work!? Our intrepid science sleuths explore why some things immediately catch your eye - or ear - while others slip by totally unnoticed. Even, on occasion, basketball bouncing gorillas. Professor Polly Dalton, a psychologist who leads The Attention Lab at Royal Holloway University, shares her surprising research into ‘inattentional blindness’ - when you get so absorbed in a task you can miss striking and unusual things going on right in front of you. Dr Gemma Briggs from the Open University reveals how this can have dangerous everyday consequences: you are four times more likely to have a crash if you talk on the phone while driving - even handsfree. Drs Rutherford and Fry also hear from stroke survivor Thomas Canning, who developed the tendency to ignore everything on the left side of space, despite his vision being totally intact. And Dr Tom Manly, from the University of Cambridge’s Cognition and Brain Sciences Unit, helps our sleuths unpack the neuroscience of this fascinating condition. Producer: Ilan Goodman Contributors: Professor Polly Dalton, Dr Gemma Briggs, Dr Tom Manly

Transcript

Click on a timestamp to play from that location

0:00.0	I'm Dr Adam Rutherford. And I'm Dr Hannah Fry. And you are going to send us your everyday
0:10.8	mysteries. And we are going to investigate them using the power of science. Science. I like it.
0:21.6	It's for new series. Oh, the curious case is a brother and a fry.
0:25.6	A bit croaky there. I am a bit croaky. It's a bit of a high pitch. Yesterday I was coaching my
0:29.7	son's rugby team which involves shouting a lot. And so yes, I am now a bit more. So you've been
0:34.9	shouting at Teenage Boys. It's something I do every week. It's like therapy. Good. Okay. Well,
0:40.0	enjoy this episode with Adam's croaky and occasionally high pitch voice.
0:50.0	Welcome back to the new series of curious cases where we are here to address your everyday
0:55.3	scientific questions. Aren't we Adam? Adam? What's up? We're making a program.
1:01.8	Yes, sorry. I was looking at a really funny cavity on Twitter. Can we have your attention?
1:06.8	You have my full attention now. Okay. Focus. All right. Because today's question came in from
1:11.0	Charlotte Mitchell who asked during the morning register, I am reading my book while ignoring
1:15.0	all the other names but would automatically listen to mine. Why is this? Now that's about something
1:19.9	pulling your attention away. Charlotte's question there. But we're also going to explore what
1:24.2	happens when we try to pay attention to different things at the same time. Now Hannah, how good
1:30.3	is your attention? Actually, you know what? I kind of consider this to be one of my superpowers
1:35.0	because I can get into a state of real hyper focus where nothing to-
1:38.7	Nothing to- Oh, it's that called the new mega process. Exactly. Right. Well, they're all actually
1:43.7	scientific attention and destruction tests. You want to do one? Go on then. Okay. So this is a
1:50.4	a test about attention focus in a noisy environment. So I'm going to play you a clip where several
1:56.8	conversations are going on at once. But one of them is between two women and I want you to focus
2:03.1	on that conversation between the two women and I want you to listen out for details on what they're
	...

Transcript will be available on the free plan in -912 days. Upgrade to see the full transcript now.

Previous episode | Next episode

Disclaimer: The podcast and artwork embedded on this page are from BBC, and are the property of its owner and not affiliated with or endorsed by Tapesearch.

Generated transcripts are the property of BBC and are distributed freely under the Fair Use doctrine. Transcripts generated by Tapesearch are not guaranteed to be accurate.