Experimental Psychology: Human Perception

In pyschology and the cognitive sciences, perception is the process of acquiring, interpreting, selecting, and organizing sensory information. (At least, that’s how wikipedia defines it)

As a small experiment of perception I want show you a brief video during which you will count the number of times a basketball is passed - seems easy enough, right? Okay, follow these short steps and then we’ll discuss it..

While watching the following video, ignore the team in black - they are trying to confuse the situation. Count only the number of passes made by the team in white t-shirts.
When you are done, click the back button to return to this page with the answers and follow up discussion.
Alright, go Watch the Video by clicking here

Do not be reading below this point if you haven’t yet watched the video…

Well, how did you do? Did you concentrate?

How many times was the basketball passed among the members of the white team?
Were you also able to count the number of passes among the black team? That’s okay, you weren’t asked to.
Did you see anything else in the video, perhaps a cat, small lizard, or a gorilla?

No, really - did you se the gorilla?

Regardless of what you did or did not see, you should go post your results in the comments below. A vast majority of people (if telling the truth) probably did not observe the gorilla that showed up in the middle of the basketball frenzy, this can be attributed to perceptual blindness. Now, if you are really embarrassed about your inability to see the gorilla, you may post anonymously so that you can feel like no one knows who you are. But honestly, I’m interested to know the results. And if you’ve seen this video before - state that in your comment too. This isn’t a new concept, infact even this test has been around for a while.

Perceptual blindness — including related phenomena is known as inattentional blindness and change blindness. When people are engaged in an engrossing task, such as monitoring swimmers in a pool, they often fail to notice otherwise obvious events because they happen outside the immediate focus of attention.

This is a good example of how people who have seen a car accident or a mugging can come up with such different stories - their attention can be focused on any number of visual stimuli, where they are otherwise cognitively engaged. How about talking on the cell phone? Strikingly, those involved in these crashes usually have no idea there was an object there, and cannot explain their failure to have seen it. Scarry - but I’m sure you’ve experienced the same type of thing, even if it didn’t result in an accident. Ever forget how you got from point ‘A’ to point ‘B’ or somehow can’t recall a portion of your drive home.

Real-life case studies of this blindness include drivers running over bicyclists, train engineers plowing into cars, submarine pilots surfacing under ships and airline pilots landing on other planes. In each case, the object or obstruction should have been easily noticed but was not.

Scientists have been researching this “inattentional blindness”, and other similar phenomenon - and the theory seems to be that there is no perception without attention.

The right number is (I think) 14. But that’s not really the point.

The point is this: did you see the gorilla walk across the screen and beat its chest? According to the original research (you can read it here), there’s a fifty-fifty chance you didn’t. Which fifty are you?

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123 Responses to “Experimental Psychology: Human Perception”

on 18 Apr 2007 at 12:44 am me

i was too distracted by everything so i saw the gorilla. i lost count at one. then i juststared at the screen, then gorilla appeared.
on 18 Apr 2007 at 1:24 am daevangelist

14 passes, though there may have been one hidden pass from the guy to the girl, and i saw the gorilla.
on 18 Apr 2007 at 4:04 am Steve

14, and yes i saw the gorilla for a brief moment, i didnt recall seeing him enter or leave though, i was too engrossed.
on 18 Apr 2007 at 9:45 am Kees

I counted 15 and I did see the gorilla walk into the middle of the group.
on 18 Apr 2007 at 12:54 pm Sara

I did not see the gorilla. This is not surprising however, since I “tune out” external noises and visual stimuli pretty much whatever I want. I could study in the middle of a party and it would be just fine. I also usually don’t notice when people are talking to me while I am working. Whoops.
on 18 Apr 2007 at 10:29 pm Lisa

I counted 14. I didn’t see the gorilla…I had to go back and watch it again because I couldn’t believe that I missed a gorilla walking to the middle of the screen and pounding his chest…
on 18 Apr 2007 at 10:29 pm Tim

I counted 14 and was wondering why there was a gorilla walking across the screen at about pass 6. I guess this means I’m still allowed to talk on the phone while driving
on 20 Apr 2007 at 4:43 pm Jason

I counted 15 passes among the white team and did not see the gorilla.
on 25 Apr 2007 at 1:58 pm AV

I counted 14 and saw the gorilla, but I didn’t see it beat its chest — I remember thinking, don’t get distracted by the gorilla.
on 30 Apr 2007 at 4:39 pm Michael VanDeMar

Ok, I think I counted 13 passes the first time, but when I re-watched it I counted 14. I did not see the gorilla the first time. I re-watched it right after the gorilla comment, and I was pretty sure that I was going to see someone sneak in and start passing the ball from the black team, kind of blend in with the scenario. I had no clue it was as obvious as it was.
on 03 May 2007 at 7:20 pm Becky

14, and yes, I saw the gorilla. My thoughts, “What the- . . . is that a gorilla?? Haha. It’s a gorilla. Wait, no! Concentrate!”
on 07 Nov 2007 at 5:34 pm Anon

There were most certainly 15 passes and I did not see the gorilla.
on 18 Nov 2007 at 2:05 pm Joey Ofori

What I counted like 27 Passes…and I saw the gorilla walk by….I dont understand how someone couldnt see it
on 18 Nov 2007 at 2:09 pm Joey Ofori

Ooooooo I counted the total passes lol
on 05 Dec 2007 at 12:24 am ANDREW LANGTON

I counted 16 passes and did not see the gorilla. Don’t think there is anything deep about this, as i was focusing on the arm movements carefully. If the gorilla had of been red, it would have caught my eye, but because i wasn’t looking directly at it, it just looked like one of the other black players in my side vision. ie if i was reading a document, i would not notice a black gorilla face moving accross the bottom of my screen if there were a load of black balls also moving across the bottom of my screen. Why? Because I wasnt looking directly at it. What does this prove?
on 28 Dec 2007 at 7:05 am Nicos Leon

I counted 14 passes and I saw the gorilla. I cannot tell you at what number the passes were when I saw it.
on 23 Jan 2008 at 8:57 pm Kelly Ann

First and only viewing: I did see the gorilla, which precipitated much laughter (”There’s a gorilla!”) and caused me to lose count. I think I had only counted six or seven passes when the laughter began.
on 30 Jan 2008 at 9:17 am Barbi

I was so engrossed that I never saw the gorilla at all. I counted 14 passes by the white team and that is all I concentrated on. Lol
on 01 Feb 2008 at 5:10 am Ta

I counted 15 (well I think one of those was when the ball passed from girl to guy without being thrown in the air). I did see the gorilla, I did not however see him beat his chest.
on 01 Feb 2008 at 9:23 pm Chris Zimny

I counted 10 passes, they bounced the ball to each other a couple times, I didn’t count those as passes.

I didn’t see the gorrilla, I watched it again, I laughed hystericly.

~Chris
on 07 Feb 2008 at 12:11 pm Carolyn

I watched the white passing the ball and counted 14 passes either tossed or bouncing.

No, I did not see the gorilla. I watched it again and was amazed that I had missed. Awesome!
on 11 Feb 2008 at 4:12 pm Aoife

I counted 14 passes and saw the gorilla. Very funny to see him in the middle of it all. Thought it was a trick to make me lose count!!
on 13 Feb 2008 at 6:49 am Tony Clarke

I counted 14 passes and focused solely on the whites so as to not lose count.I’m actually happy that I didn’t see the gorilla.I had one goal and one goal only i.e. to count the passes.I went in with that mindset.Be mindful of the fact that you said that the blacks were only a distraction.
on 19 Mar 2008 at 9:24 pm YLlama

Counted 12 passes. Saw gorilla. Probably why I undercounted. Did not see him beat his chest, though.
on 20 Mar 2008 at 1:30 am Sebastian Bravo

I counted 14 passes and I saw the gorilla at the first time - I am 10 years old
on 20 Apr 2008 at 6:53 am mariana

14 passes and did not notice the gorilla at all…lol
on 09 Jun 2008 at 12:58 pm Don Rhinehart

I counted 13.

I saw this on TV a few years back. I KNEW the gorilla was coming.

The 1st time (this time) I watched it knowing that.
I watched it a 2nd time, focusing on counting.
I counted 13. I did see the gorilla, but totally missed him (or her) beating his chest.
on 20 Jun 2008 at 2:41 pm Ted Mihran

I just saw this video at a talk at the GE Research Lab. on cognitive science given by professor at RPI.
I counted fourteen white-to-white passes, and did not see the gorilla. Naturally, I saw the gorilla the second time I viewed the video, when told what to look for.

I had vaguely heard about this experiment several years ago, but had forgotten its significance. I think it broadly explains why persons belonging to one political party cannot comprehend the achievements of the other political party. They are not looking for them!

Can we use the results to improve the dynamic of the interaction between two political parties, which is sorely needed?
on 29 Jun 2008 at 9:45 pm Andrew Marks

I counted 14 and saw the gorilla beating his chest
on 01 Jul 2008 at 7:11 pm Anne

I /did/ see the gorilla and I was like what the?? and I counted fifteen passes…but one of the passes I was unsure about because I got distracted by the guy in the gorilla suit. :0)
on 01 Jul 2008 at 9:02 pm steve

1st look 14 passes no gorilla,2nd look 14 and gorilla
on 01 Jul 2008 at 9:13 pm Joe R

I counted 14 passes. There was another, but I decided it was from the black team. I did not see the gorilla at all.
on 02 Jul 2008 at 9:13 am S. Karim

I counted 13 and a posible 14th pass. I Actually thought that I saw something wierd at first but I was to focused on counting the passes. Afterwards, when I’d found out about the Gorilla walking across the screen. I realized that the wierd thing that I had seen resembled the face of a Gorilla.
on 03 Jul 2008 at 8:08 am KS

Either most people are lying or people that didn’t see the gorilla arent posting. I saw this same video shown in front of a classroom and only a handful actually saw the gorilla.
on 03 Jul 2008 at 2:28 pm davidlooney

Iam really sure ther was 15 passes,of course 1 was hidden. I never seen the gorilla not one time until I went back to look. Guess I cannot see the forest for the trees!
on 17 Jul 2008 at 2:07 am R M

What gorilla?
on 31 Jul 2008 at 8:16 pm Cars1

I tried to follow the three white-shirted players around, made it easier to focus on counting their passes only, and saw a distracting/complicating figure enter from the right and segue out to the left. Counted 12 passes, though thought there might be more, the first viewing. Saw the gorilla viewing-2, the drawn S’s and the actual cha-cha motion viewing-3,
on 03 Sep 2008 at 6:04 pm T N

14 passes I saw the gorilla hes preety hard to miss my brother saw him 2
on 06 Sep 2008 at 1:20 pm Darrell Hambley

Gee wiz Jeff, You purposefully wrote, “did you see…..a gorilla?” You have poisoned the experiment by telling people what to NOT look for before they even see the video! Viewers are certainly going to look for a gorilla now that you’ve told them.
on 07 Sep 2008 at 6:26 am Jeff Sickles

Darrell, WOW - you must have missed the bold print those pesky instructions, the BIG PICTURE LINK AND the bold text that reads “Do not be reading below this point if you haven’t yet watched the video…” Then EIGHT count them -(8) line returns below that you find the word gorilla. Me thinks you have only poisoned yourself sir. Still makes me wonder if you saw the gorilla SINCE YOU DIDN’T EVEN SEE THE INSTRUCTIONS! ha ha ha
on 09 Sep 2008 at 6:29 pm LG

I counted 14 and think maybe one was behind a couple of people that I may have missed. I saw the gorilla, but didn’t see him enter or leave.
on 10 Sep 2008 at 9:48 pm MM

I have the feeling that the difference between the people is in the ability to “stay on point” and be “focused”, rather than being able to multitask. I think it would be very interesting to show it to a group of people with ADHD and a group without it to see if there is any difference there. BTW, I saw all 14 passes but no gorilla. Not good, not bad — just “on point”.
on 10 Sep 2008 at 10:02 pm Dave Plottel

I counted 14 passes and I did notice the gorilla. When I saw it I thought “Wow, they really are trying to distract the viewer, aren’t they?”.

I think one reason so many people don’t see the gorilla is that they are trying to ignore the black-clad team, so they are primed to ignore human-shaped and human-sized things that are black (like, say, someone in a black gorilla suit).

Interesting.
on 10 Sep 2008 at 10:47 pm Bill(MN)

14
Saw the gorilla.
Saw the piece several years ago, though. Hard to forget a good gorilla.
(In a 4th year news reporting class a beating of the lecturer was staged. The range of “observed facts” in the written reports on it was amazing, and unforgettable, even ~ 35 years later.)
Cheers!
Bill
on 11 Sep 2008 at 4:55 am PS

I counted 12 passes. Saw the gorilla and it beat its chest.
on 21 Sep 2008 at 9:54 pm Bob

Jeff,
I’m intrigued by the Perception Test video. I would like to watch that entire lecture. Where might I find it. I have searched and can’t find it.
on 28 Sep 2008 at 5:31 am Pat (female)

I only counted 11, I saw the gorilla, but I didn’t see him beat his chest. I don’t use the cell when driving. I used to have a bag phone that kept a green lighted keypad. Once I actually ran a red light because I saw the green reflected in the windshield. Fortunately it was after midnight and no traffic.
on 21 Oct 2008 at 3:25 pm Paul

I saw the gorilla and counted 15 passes
on 23 Oct 2008 at 1:37 pm Diane

I counted 14 and saw the gorilla. Although I counted 14, I believe there were 15 because I know on one pass that I counted, it went to the female but the next pass went from a male, so I missed the pass from the female to a male.
on 27 Oct 2008 at 11:50 am Vicki

I saw the gorilla and couldn’t tell you when he appeared. He distracted me enough for me to multitask to think about it, but I still managed to count the “white passes”.
on 27 Oct 2008 at 3:08 pm Teri

Saw 14 passes…no gorilla…watched it the second time and was amazed that I missed it! I am an overachiever and would not miss the count!
Teri
on 28 Oct 2008 at 1:55 pm Jacqueline

Counted 14 and did not see the gorilla. I can’t believe I missed the gorilla.
on 05 Nov 2008 at 8:06 am Jacob Saaby Nielsen

I saw 15 passes. Only 14 are really visible to the eye, but the 15th pass HAS to have occured, as the ball shifted position from male to female.

So I saw 14, my reasoning says there must’ve been one extra.

No gorilla seen here. No observations on the black team.
on 13 Nov 2008 at 5:45 am ian dickson

At Uni I was in a variation of this in 1985.

A law lecture was interrupted by a guy who burst in looking for his experimental monkey.

He raced round, looked all over, climbed up the rows and basically had everyones attention for about 5 minutes before leaving.

It appeared to just be an interruption.

At the end of the lecture the teacher asked us to write down what was he wearing, and what colours. We pretty much agreed shirt and trousers, but shirt colours ranged from white to black with a lot of blues and browns. (Not many went for bright ones).

And the point was - eye witnesses are not reliable EVEN WHEN THEY ARE concentrating on something that has grabbed their attention.

All you could have concluded from interviews with us was:-

We were in a law lecture, and a medium/tall guy aged 30-60 came in looking for his monkey-cat and he was wearing office work type shirt trousers that were a sensible colour.

WHAT happened, yes. WHO DONE IT, no way.
on 18 Nov 2008 at 12:27 pm keith

I saw this at college and missed the Gorilla. I have shown this to a few friends and the % has been in favour of not seeing the Gorilla. Some think they saw an extra black t-shirt or an interuption of the passes. It is a great example of hpw the mind can be manipulated to see what a person wants it to see
on 16 Jan 2009 at 7:23 am Julka

I saw the gorilla. And I saw 13 passes.
on 03 Mar 2009 at 1:07 am Rob

I actually got distracted by the gorilla and lost count of the white team’s passes.
on 19 Mar 2009 at 7:18 am Sarah

I counted 12 passes, and concentrated on the white team’s ball. So I ignored everything else entirely! I am proud of my ignoring skills, but now I’ll go back and see what else I can spot.
on 19 Mar 2009 at 9:45 am Louisa

I counted 14 passes and never noticed a gorilla. Frankly I was concentrating so hard on counting the passes a whole zoo could have entered and I wouldn’t have noticed!
on 19 Mar 2009 at 9:55 am Maddy

I saw the gorilla! My mum showed me and my brother the video and then asked us if we had seen anything walk across the screen while we were counting the passes by the white team. My brother hadn’t noticed, but I said a person in a gorilla suit. My mum was amazed I had noticed as she hadn’t, she says it’s probably because I am a speed reader and can absorb tons of stuff visually. I am 10 BTW
on 19 Mar 2009 at 10:36 am Amanda Wheatland

I counted 14 passes but did not see the gorilla. Interestingly both my children saw the gorilla, one counted 14 passes as well as and the other only 4 passes!? He is a boy who has trouble concentrating.
on 19 Mar 2009 at 2:25 pm syl

I saw 14 passes in the white team and the Gorilla as well. Took no notice of blackteam only spotted 8 passes but there were more.
Sylv
on 19 Mar 2009 at 3:32 pm Julie

I was anticipating something like the gorilla having seen something similar before. In fact I was anticipating it so much I lost count of the basketball passes.
on 13 Apr 2009 at 5:32 pm Kate

I counted 14 passes. I saw what I thought was another black team member walk through but didn’t notice it was a gorilla.
on 15 Apr 2009 at 1:06 pm Michelle

I counted 14 passes. I saw the gorilla, but only after he was in the middle of the screen. I blinked and suddenly noticed that he was there.
on 27 Apr 2009 at 7:54 am Carla and Lore

Carla and Lore didn’t see the gorilla AT ALL. It’s quite funny.
Konitchiwa
on 03 May 2009 at 10:23 am rupinder

Hi,

I counted 22 passes. I did see the gorilla aswell and thought whhat the hell is a gorilla doing in the middle there haha looked funny at the time.
on 13 May 2009 at 6:40 am girl

i did see about 14 passes by the white team and i saw the gorilla.. Maybe this is because of the selective attention that is why other people doesn’t seem to notice the gorilla..and the theory above..haha
on 13 May 2009 at 6:34 pm Wilbert

Counted 15 passes and didn’t see the gorilla. I even watched it twice before going back to this page to make sure I counted correctly. Only after reading about the gorilla did I notice it when I watched it for the third time.
on 14 May 2009 at 8:03 am marla

I concentrated on the white team passing the ball since the instructions said to ignore the black team since that was a distraction. I viewed this several times and counted fourteen passes and never saw the gorilla.
on 23 May 2009 at 8:46 am Libby

I did concentrate on the white team and i counted 13 passes. I sort of looked at the black team but not really. I did see the gorilla though, i wasnt sure what that was at first but then when i saw the question i knew it was a gorilla.
on 23 May 2009 at 8:50 am Nick

i counted 14 passes for white and 17 for black, the gorilla was easy to spot because he almost walked infront of someone passing the ball.
on 23 May 2009 at 8:52 am Libby

lol nice comment
on 31 May 2009 at 1:57 pm Beth

I counted 15 I thought. I saw the gorilla walk in and out of the picture. I guarantee my husband wouldn’t have though. LOL.
on 02 Jun 2009 at 8:49 pm Elvira

I totally DID NOT see the gorilla! this can be one reasonable explanation of schizophrenia as my professor said.
on 18 Jul 2009 at 5:16 pm Sarah

The first time I watched this i didn’t see the gorilla. There was about 30 of us in the room and only about 2 or 3 people saw it. We were told about the gorilla before watching it for a second time and it was so obvious once I knew it was there. I was amazed by this experiment and this is what first made me interested in psychology.
on 19 Jul 2009 at 11:56 am Darrell

The first time I saw this, the lecturer said, “..there’s a gender bias..” so naturally, all the boys/girls concentrated on the number of passes to show that they’re better than the girls/boys. I didn’t see the gorilla.

NOW, the important issue is:
How can we make money from fooling people?

Please comment on some situation that you can think of. (no, nothing which involves a gorilla though)Here’s some odd suggestions of possible scenarios:
Counting the quantity of wheat which you deliver to a grain broker.
Convince voters to ignore the district which wasn’t counted.
Demonstrating your new engine invention to Ford.
Manipulating your contract for carpet installation on a new skyscraper.
on 23 Jul 2009 at 5:03 pm ancore

first time I heard about such experiments
14 or 15 passes, one may be hidden behind a person
didn’t noticed the gorilla at all
still doubting that there is a gorilla
on 31 Jul 2009 at 4:38 pm Crissy

I saw the gorilla, but I only counted 12 passes.
on 04 Aug 2009 at 8:36 pm Jennifer

14 and yes i saw the gorilla
on 27 Sep 2009 at 9:35 pm Nick Lysinger

15 and I did see the gorilla
on 01 Oct 2009 at 1:06 pm Anastasia

In all honesty I missed the gorilla. Counted 14, possssibly 15. I’m very skilled at blocking stuff out though, it comes in handy.
on 02 Oct 2009 at 5:40 pm Graeme

I saw this video yesterday at a seminar and I didn’t see the gorilla at all!
on 02 Oct 2009 at 9:56 pm JB

When counting the basketballs I thought I saw a gorilla, but that thought didn’t materialize until the lecturer asked if we saw something strange like a gorilla. I showed the same video to my fiancee today and he didn’t see the gorilla at all. It’s amazing how our brain works!
on 05 Oct 2009 at 11:08 am Michelle M.

I counted 15 passes and at some point I thought that there were more black figures than there should be but I was concentrating so hard that I had no idea it was a gorilla!
on 11 Oct 2009 at 3:16 pm Maria Gracia Galvez Picon

I counted 14 and thought that the gorilla was cute as he walked by. I noticed his hands waving and tried to keep counting the passes for the white team. I did not try to count the black teams passing.
on 15 Oct 2009 at 2:13 pm Helen

I counted 11 passes but got distracted by the gorilla, so maybe it was more than that. Great experiment!
on 15 Oct 2009 at 11:32 pm Mary

I saw 14 passes and the gorilla but did not see him beat his chest. I have an occupation in which I observe children closely so I suspect that is why I was able to see the gorilla. I figured right away he was the point of experiment so paid no more attention to him but continued to be task orientated. Interesting study and information.
on 16 Oct 2009 at 2:27 pm Coleen

I saw 14 passes, and one gorilla. I did not notice the gorilla right away though.
on 22 Oct 2009 at 6:48 pm Callie

My psychology teacher showed us the video in class today. Everyone counted 14 passes, but only 5 out or 25 or so students saw the gorilla, and I was one of them. Once the gorilla appeared it took me a second to start counting again though.
on 26 Oct 2009 at 12:23 am Cady

I counted 14 passes and did not see the gorilla, my 16 year old daughter also counted 14 and did not see the gorilla.
on 29 Oct 2009 at 8:10 am Lauren

I counted 15 passes between the white shirts and noticed the gorilla in the middle. no lie. guess i got a good eye.
on 02 Nov 2009 at 11:44 am Someone

IF YOU DIDN’T SEE THE GORILLA:

Just thought I’d put this out there for those who didn’t see the gorilla.

It means you are able to tell your brain to focus on what you believe is important and filter out the rest. It’s more than likely your senses saw the gorilla, but your brain filtered it out.

Usually this means you are good at focusing.
AKA. IT’S A GOOD THING.

If you saw the gorilla, chances are you tend to take in whole pictures and aren’t as good at focusing on one task at a time.
on 07 Nov 2009 at 2:19 pm Ajay

counted 14 and I did see the man in the Gorilla suit…
on 16 Dec 2009 at 11:06 am darren morris

We did this on a human performance course yesterday. We hand to count the number of bounce passes made by the white team. I saw the gorilla briefly, but didn’t see it walk on & wave its arm. Out of the 10 people who viewed the clip, only myself & one other person saw it.
on 18 Jan 2010 at 7:19 pm Tara

I counted the number of passes correctly (14), but I did not see the gorilla!! When I went back to rewatch the video, I couldn’t believe that I didn’t see it!
on 20 Jan 2010 at 5:58 pm Test subject

I counted 15 and I did not see the Gorilla. Was too focused on getting the accurate count.
on 30 Jan 2010 at 8:14 pm Maurizio

I noticed the gorilla as I was counting, the only reason I stopped was because it made me laugh as I understood what was going on. Upon replaying I was able to not only count the white, but also the black. White had 14, black I thought initially had 18, but after re-checking my answer I realized there was a pass in the beginning that occurred obscured to the camera. Back to middle to front. Black had 19 passes.
on 06 Feb 2010 at 5:45 pm Barbara

There were fourteen passes. I saw the gorilla but I was looking for him because I have seen the video and been told the secret before. I think that if you didn’t tell people to ignore the people in black, more people might have noticed him, but since the gorilla was a dark figure, people had a tendency to ignore him.
on 11 Feb 2010 at 11:27 pm Teena

I seen this video in my psychology class and I DID NOT see the gorilla,, this is why I love psychology.. I showed it to my boyfriend and he too did not see it…
on 15 Feb 2010 at 5:53 am luc

i counted 15 and never saw a gorilla
on 19 Feb 2010 at 1:50 am Vijai Sankar

Counted 14passes. Was not attentive to the gorilla come in. Noticed it. Associated it to a bear.
on 25 Feb 2010 at 3:14 pm steven

i saw them pass the ball 14 times i had to watch the video twice to remember it though. i have no idea how many times the black team passed it. i saw a gorilla in the middle of the picture for a second, but i didnt pay much attention to it because i was focused on the ball.
on 27 Feb 2010 at 10:56 pm Jack David

It was amazing that I missed the gorilla. I just kept following the ball.
on 04 Mar 2010 at 12:12 am Paul

I saw 14 passes but didn’t know it was a gorilla passing through the demonstration. I did notice SOMETHING was moving around but thought it might have been just another black-garb team member. So I take credit for seeing something unusual, but didn’t know a gorilla came through the scene until the second viewing.
on 11 Mar 2010 at 4:57 pm Marci

I just saw this video at the HIMSS conference in Atlanta and did NOT see the gorilla. I was very intently foccused on counting the number of passes because I wanted to have the RIGHT answer. I love to be right about things, so much so that it is blinding me. That may be a good thing…It keeps me focused but reinforces the need for partners who have other points to view.
on 05 Apr 2010 at 12:40 am Shannon

I counted 19 and saw the gorilla as he left the circle
on 05 Apr 2010 at 4:47 pm Gregg

I counted 16 passes. I did not notice the gorilla come in, but I did see it beats its chest and leave.
on 20 Apr 2010 at 5:57 pm Caryn

I counted 14 passes. I’ve never seen or heard about this video before. I did notice the gorilla, and I remember thinking “how in the world did that gorilla get in the video?” Never saw him coming or leaving, he was just in the middle all of a sudden, beating his chest. I chose to ignore him, and focus on the white team.
on 04 May 2010 at 5:05 pm Eddy

I count 16 and I saw the gorilla. It was funny.
on 10 May 2010 at 2:39 pm Missy

I counted 13 passes, ans I thought I was seeing things when I saw the gorilla.
on 12 May 2010 at 1:29 pm susan

I counted thirteen passes, and I did see the gorilla. I have seen this clip before, though. It’s been a few years, but if I remember correctly, I did not see it the first time.
on 16 May 2010 at 9:53 am Sarah

When I am given a task like counting… I am focused on the task. I have to block out all distractions to complete an activity. (Kind of like when I do my homework for graduate school)

I noticed more activity on the screen when the gorill amust have appeared but truthfully whatever was happening just made me concentrate even harder on the white players passing the ball. I did not identify the gorilla on the screen the first time through.
on 17 May 2010 at 11:22 pm Kelly

I counted 15 passes and did not see the gorilla. Evidently I’m really good at tuning out external stimuli when I’m focused on a task. I went back and rewatched right away and was amazed at how obvious the gorilla really was.
on 18 May 2010 at 10:35 pm Heidi

Showed this to my daughter as I had seen it before. She counted 14 passes and did not see the gorilla.
on 01 Jun 2010 at 4:28 am stepurhan

I counted 15 passes (which is the number the video says is the correct one at the end). I also saw the gorilla but it had walked into the middle and started beating its chest by the time I saw it. The ball the whites were passing went near it about that point so I guess that brought it within range of my focus.
on 02 Jun 2010 at 11:18 am deejay

I counted 15 passes. I saw the gorilla but didn’t know when he came or left - I just noticed him at some point but re focussed on the ‘white’ team.
on 09 Jun 2010 at 1:11 pm Molly

I actually did watch this video before as part of a teacher training at my school. The first time I saw this I absolutely did not see the gorilla.
on 12 Jun 2010 at 10:45 am Tasha

I counted 15 passes and i saw the gorilla but only after he/she was in the middle of the group.
on 14 Jun 2010 at 7:57 am Linda

I counted 16 - I did see the gorilla, I seen him pause in the middle, face the carmera, but dont recall seen him beat his chest. It was only on rewined that I noticed that. Also I have read about inuntentional blindness so that may be why I seen the gorilla, because I was expecting to see him.
on 17 Jun 2010 at 7:19 pm Brian

I counted 15 passes but had no clue the gorilla was there. This example really goes to show makes clear that we really only concentrate on the specific things we’re looking for. What’s truly astonishing is how many other examples we can think of if we apply this theme.
on 26 Jun 2010 at 8:17 am Carrie

I counted 15 and I saw the gorilla. It would be interesting to show this to people with ADHD and see the % who see the gorilla.
on 17 Jul 2010 at 9:34 am Woody

I counted 12, but then I thought that a bounce would not count as a pass. My friend Phil told me that it does: it’s called a bounce pass. I did not see the gorilla.

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