And Now for Something Completely Different: Inattentional Blindness during a Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch

Richard Wiseman; Caroline Watt

doi:10.1068/I0706SAS

And Now for Something Completely Different: Inattentional Blindness during a Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch

Richard Wiseman, Caroline Watt

Research output: Contribution to journal › Article › peer-review

1 Citation (Scopus)

160 Downloads (Pure)

Abstract

Perceptual science has frequently benefited from studying illusions created outside of academia. Here, we describe a striking, but little-known, example of inattentional blindness from the British comedy series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Viewers fail to attend to several highly incongruous characters in the sketch, despite these characters being clearly visible onscreen. The sketch has the potential to be a valuable research and teaching resource, as well as providing a vivid illustration of how people often fail to see something completely different.

Original language	English
Pages (from-to)	38-40
Number of pages	3
Journal	i-Perception
Volume	6
Issue number	1
Early online date	1 Jan 2015
DOIs	https://doi.org/10.1068/I0706SAS
Publication status	Published - 1 Feb 2015

Keywords

attention
illusion
inattentional blindness
Monty Python
perception

Access to Document

10.1068/I0706SASLicence: CC BY

Final_Version
© 2015 SAGE Publications Ltd. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm)
Final published version, 667 KBLicence: CC BY

Cite this

@article{e02713b7e86f4e60bce24684d6c0a0f8,

title = "And Now for Something Completely Different: Inattentional Blindness during a Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch",

abstract = "Perceptual science has frequently benefited from studying illusions created outside of academia. Here, we describe a striking, but little-known, example of inattentional blindness from the British comedy series “Monty Python{\textquoteright}s Flying Circus.” Viewers fail to attend to several highly incongruous characters in the sketch, despite these characters being clearly visible onscreen. The sketch has the potential to be a valuable research and teaching resource, as well as providing a vivid illustration of how people often fail to see something completely different.",

keywords = "attention, illusion, inattentional blindness, Monty Python, perception",

author = "Richard Wiseman and Caroline Watt",

note = "{\textcopyright} 2015 SAGE Publications Ltd. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm)",

year = "2015",

month = feb,

day = "1",

doi = "10.1068/I0706SAS",

language = "English",

volume = "6",

pages = "38--40",

journal = "i-Perception",

issn = "2041-6695",

publisher = "SAGE Publications",

number = "1",

}

TY - JOUR

T1 - And Now for Something Completely Different: Inattentional Blindness during a Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch

AU - Wiseman, Richard

AU - Watt, Caroline

N1 - © 2015 SAGE Publications Ltd. This article is distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 License (http://www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/3.0/) which permits any use, reproduction and distribution of the work without further permission provided the original work is attributed as specified on the SAGE and Open Access page (http://www.uk.sagepub.com/aboutus/openaccess.htm)

PY - 2015/2/1

Y1 - 2015/2/1

N2 - Perceptual science has frequently benefited from studying illusions created outside of academia. Here, we describe a striking, but little-known, example of inattentional blindness from the British comedy series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Viewers fail to attend to several highly incongruous characters in the sketch, despite these characters being clearly visible onscreen. The sketch has the potential to be a valuable research and teaching resource, as well as providing a vivid illustration of how people often fail to see something completely different.

AB - Perceptual science has frequently benefited from studying illusions created outside of academia. Here, we describe a striking, but little-known, example of inattentional blindness from the British comedy series “Monty Python’s Flying Circus.” Viewers fail to attend to several highly incongruous characters in the sketch, despite these characters being clearly visible onscreen. The sketch has the potential to be a valuable research and teaching resource, as well as providing a vivid illustration of how people often fail to see something completely different.

KW - attention

KW - illusion

KW - inattentional blindness

KW - Monty Python

KW - perception

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85087903833&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1068/I0706SAS

DO - 10.1068/I0706SAS

M3 - Article

AN - SCOPUS:85087903833

SN - 2041-6695

VL - 6

SP - 38

EP - 40

JO - i-Perception

JF - i-Perception

IS - 1

ER -

And Now for Something Completely Different: Inattentional Blindness during a Monty Python's Flying Circus Sketch

Abstract

Keywords

Access to Document

Other files and links

Fingerprint

Cite this