Reader Gerry sends in this most excellent link to an optical illusion:
Motion Induced Blindness
Basically, it's a spinning grid with a blinking green dot in the center and three yellow dots equidistant from the green dot and each other. As the grid spins, if you focus on the green dot in the center, the yellow dots will alternately or simultaneously disappear. The hosting site is MSF - the Motorcycle Safety Foundation - which I found interesting as I've taken the MSF safety course to get my motorcycle endorsement (and I highly recommend the course for anyone thinking about getting a motorcycle).
It's applicable to much else in life, naturally - there's a powerful allegory there about spending too much time with a fixed focus. Gerry points out that this is one of the dangers of tunnel vision - imagine if that green dot were a goblin threatening you, and the yellow dot his friends. Or even that the green dot is your front sight, while the yellow dots are potential threats. Granted, there are many factors at work in the optical illusion that won't be present in real life applications (unless you work in a screen door factory and get caught in a hurricane), but it's still an interesting reminder that our minds are wired in funny ways...
Besides, it's a pretty neat optical illusion, too...
That is all.
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5 comments:
This REALLY comes into play in aviation, and is critical to be able to 'recognize' it... You can make an entire airplane disappear in form flying by fixating on something!!! It's also why one 'scans' rather than stares!
Bingo! When I took the MSF course, they used the acronym SIPDE: Scan, Identify, Predict, Decide, Execute.
Even 17 years later I still remember that!
Old NFO,
Our mutual friend J-P sent it to me with the aviation app in mind.
Gerry
I try to keep my focus shifting on my bike. Check lane position, cars, left mirror, right mirror. Focus on where I want to go, which is not static, rather than where I AM going, which is. Maintain awareness of all the death cages around me. I don't fly, but I know it has saved my bacon more than once on two-wheels. I didn't take a formal safety class for my endorsement (MT didn't require one at the time), but its something my Dad taught me, before I could even touch the ground on both sides of the bike.
I try apply it walking, too. Another good exercise? Mirror stealing. Stores and city streets are full of reflective surfaces, they can extend your peripheral vision by 180 degrees once you learn to use them. Bikes, cars, feet or, apparently, planes, the skills apply.
NFO, my dad taught me the the flight application early on in life. My dad used it to teach me with dealing with problems as well.
When you have one problem don't forget to continue looking around while dealing with it. Best example I can think of right now is while diving. While dealing with a problem underwater relative to the task the last thing you want to do is forget about your Total Time on Bottom and your air supply remaining. You can easily create two new problems from your problem with your task on the bottom. Your problem with the task isn't life threatening (usually), the two new problems ARE!
I don't want a problem to live in my blind spot, mean it both literally and figuratively as I drive large vehicles too. The earlier you spot a problem the easier it is to deal with.
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