The Case of The Missing Gorilla

Discovery

BBC

Science

4.3 • 1.2K Ratings

🗓️ 10 October 2022

⏱️ 28 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.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Ever wondered what the world's wealthiest people did to get so ridiculously rich?
0:05.4	Our podcast Good Bad Billionaire takes one billionaire at a time and explains exactly how they made their money.
0:11.9	And then we decide if they are actually good, bad or just plain wealthy.
0:15.5	So if you want to know if Rihanna is as much of a bad guy as she claims,
0:19.2	or what Jeff Bezos really did to become the first person in history to pocket $100 billion,
0:24.6	listen to Good Bad Billionaire with me, Simon Jack,
0:27.4	and me, Zing Zing.
0:28.4	Listen on BBC Sounds.
0:31.4	Hello and welcome to the curious cases of Rutherford and Fry on Discovery for the BBC.
0:36.5	This is the programme where you send us in the queries,
0:39.7	questions and conundrums that you are curious about.
0:42.5	And we will look into them on your behalf using the power of science.
0:46.6	So please do send us your questions,
0:48.4	curious cases at bbc.co.uk and on with the show.
0:59.2	Welcome back to the new series of curious cases,
1:01.7	where we are here to address your everyday scientific questions.
1:05.8	Aren't we Adam? Adam?
1:08.4	What's up?
1:09.4	We're making a programme?
1:11.0	Yes, sorry I was looking at a really funny cavity on Twitter.
1:14.7	Can we have your attention?
1:16.0	You have my full attention.
	...

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