In-Class Activity #1: Paper

Selective attention and processing is how human beings participate in day-to-day activities without developing psychosis. Imagine if you were unable to filter the noises of all the students around you before the start of a class in Chem 1800? Or, what would your state of mind be if you put every detail of what you did yesterday into your long-term memory? The answer is depressing: in A.R. Luria's Mind of the Mnemonist he describes a man with a limitless memory who lost every job he ever attained due to the distraction of every sensory stimulation and action he had every experienced or performed throughout his life.
With my paper, I folded it into two, torn it in half, and placed the second piece of paper over the first. Then, I wrote to the left and right of the crease:

(L) Open
(L) Eyes
(R) do
(R) not
(R) necessarily
(L) see.

No one noticed it, because their attention wasn't framed properly. The words were merely an impression on the paper, which had to be tilted in order for the light to create shadows and reveal the indentation on the second piece of paper, which I discarded. Without knowing this, the brain naturally seeks the stark contrast of black font with white background. In its absence, attention discards it as simply "paper" and moves on to more important stimuli.

Although I will be the first to admit that this ability to sense, process, and filter stimuli is of foremost importance to human evolution (and the maintenance of sanity), it is also necessary to place a check and balance on this useful adaptation. Indeed, smart people can be so stupid, but it's usually because of using the wrong framing or schema. For example, an expert rock climber could fall to his/her death because the person follows a strict routine of attaching their harness, clipping their caribeener securely on their harness, then checking their shoes. If one day, the person attached their harness, then noticed that their shoes were untied and checked them, they might follow their regular 'schema' of checking harness, caribeener, then shoes, which would trick them into believing (due to logical progression through the schema) that they had secured their caribeener since they were currently focused on their shoes. It's a simple mistake, which even a highly intelligent, very skilled individual can make.

Consider the following optical illusions and remember that things are not always what they seem and sometimes what your mind concludes first is not always best.

Optical Illusion #1: Distorted Room


Optical Illusion #2: House