In this episode, we are joined by cognitive psychologist, Christopher Chabris, who is perhaps best known for his collaborative research on the Ig Nobel prize-winning 'Gorillas in Our Midst' experiment and his subsequent popular psychology book, The Invisible Gorilla. Chris is an Associate Professor of Psychology at Union College in New York and a Senior Investigator at Geisinger Health System.
- Why Chris believes companies often fail the test of inattentional blindness during the product design phase.
- Why our attention is more limited than we think and how learning self-control can help us to take in more information.
- Why we overvalue confidence and how we can work to recognize and overcome our own cognitive biases.
Key Takeaways and Learnings
- Inattentional blindness: the surprising facts on how limited our attention is.
- Illusion of attention: why we think we pay more attention to things than we actually do.
- Human cognitive architecture: how understanding the limitations and foibles of the human mind can lead to successful product and technology design.
Links and Resources Mentioned in this Episode
- Get in touch with Christopher via email or Twitter
- Christopher's website
- The Invisible Gorilla: How Our Intuitions Deceive Us, a book by Christopher Chabris
- Invisible Gorilla, Facebook page
- Gorillas in Our Midst, scientific paper
- Selective Attention test, YouTube video of the experiment
- Ulric Neisser, the father of Cognitive Psychology
- A Deadly Wandering: A Mystery, a Landmark Investigation, and the Astonishing Science of Attention in the Digital Age, a book by Matt Richtel
- 65% of Americans believe they are above average in intelligence, a study by Patrick R. Heck, Daniel J. Simons and Christopher F. Chabris
- Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance: An Inquiry into Values, a book by Robert M Pirsig
- Superforecasting: The Art and Science of Prediction, a book by Philip E. Tetlock and Dan Gardner
- Everything Is Obvious: How Common Sense Fails Us, a book by Duncan J. Watts
- Thinking, Fast and Slow, a book by Daniel Kahneman
- Innovaton Ecosystem Episode 070 – The Return on Investment of Mental Models with Robert Hagstrom
- Innovaton Ecosystem Episode 078 – Human Innovation, Smart Machines with Ed Hess
