Will our attention really "steal"?Don't underestimate the intelligence of the human brain ｜ Read+

In the era of information explosion, when limited attention was harvested and used crazy, did we have become the "slave" of information?

A Dutch scholar's "We's Stolen Attention" introduced everyone how our attention was attracted to it, and also told everyone that the human brain is very intelligent, evolved, and automatically screen information. Our we are. Attention is not so great.

"We's Stolen"

[Netherlands] Stefan Van Destigneer

Wang Shaoxiang and Lin Zhen translated

Huazhong University of Science and Technology Press

Teachers, directors, and advertisers are "attention architects"

What we think is a meticulous, unchanged world, and we don't know that this is just the illusion that our brain left to us when processing visual information.

There is no doubt that the information is involved in the eyes first, and the visual information accounts for a large part, and the eyes are like an "external interface" that accepts information.

Therefore, many occupations are actually "attention architects" and are thinking about how to attract our attention every day. Such as website designers, teachers, traffic engineers, directors, magicians, advertisers, etc. The website designer wants to attract the visitors to click. The teacher wants the students to be indifferent. The engineer wants to let the driver see the roadblocks. The magician relies on the attention of the audience to make them believe. To achieve the lifelike purpose, advertisers set up a big screen on the streets of the downtown. They also have the ability to completely block the information and prevent us from receiving the corresponding information. In short, everyone is exhausted and tried to try to innovate, so that the purpose is to attract people's attention.

Film directors particularly like to change blindness. They will try to create a smooth movie viewing experience and substitute the audience into the story. To achieve this, they must ensure that the transition between each scene is smooth and not abrupt. Therefore, usually each film must be edited one or two thousand times, which means that every 3 to 5 seconds is a new picture. This is the "Continuous Editing Rule", and every director and editor in the industry know this.

The film director knows that the audience likes to keep up with the main line of the development of the story and will not deliberately pay attention to the changes in the position of the machine, so the directors will use this smartly. One of the rules is the 180 -degree rule, which means that if multiple cameras are used to shoot the same scene at the same time, only when the position of the machine is formed, it will bring a pleasant and continuous movie viewing experience to the audience. Another common trick is to use the perspective of the actor. For example, when a scene changes, if the actor looks at a related object outside the camera, most viewers will be busy looking for things that actors are watching and they can't see, such as cars driving into the camera. In this way, we can easily switch between two actors who are looking at each other and talking.

Since childhood, the children have been told that "fire trucks are red", but red is not necessarily the best choice for fire trucks. Today, red cars are not only fire trucks. Of course, there are other ways to make road users vigorously vigilance, such as using police bells and flash. One way is to increase yellow reflexes or white and blue stripes. Another more thorough method is to paint the entire fire truck into a completely different color. In the United States, many states have adopted this method. Their current fire trucks are lemon yellow. This color is relatively rare on highways and roads. In 1997, the Dallas Fire Brigade of Texas launched two red and yellow fire trucks. After the monitoring of the number of traffic accidents, it was found that the yellow fire truck involved in traffic accidents was much less. In the Netherlands, ambulances are also yellow. At the same time, the law also prohibits other road users from driving to the color of the ambulance that provides emergency services. Change the color.

Our around us, all kinds of messages are competing for our attention, and those "architects" who follow the laws that most follow the attention often stand out.

"Poor memory" may be an evolutionary advantage

Strolling the forest, surrounded by green trees, and pleasing to the eye. We opened our eyes widely and thought that it was unobstructed. In fact, we only stored a small amount of information.

For example, the "Star Wars" series is called the legend of the movie industry, but there are a lot of shots in it. The props are placed here for a while, and the green background of the green grass will suddenly become a desert that is not born. You couldn't pay attention to these gangsters, but some people were annoying and pointed out for you in 151, "stealing" your attention.

This is not to say that everyone's brain is inefficient, but because people only focus on the information they need. Energy -saving systems have advantages in the evolution of things. In other words, "poor memory" may still be a advantage.

Although our retina capture light from everything around us, it will only process the information related to us. This is a good thing! Imagine that if you walk in a supermarket, if you want to process all the information you see and understand each product, you have to consume how much energy is consumed.

"We's Stolen" also cited an example of the Netherlands. A lady decided to go to Amsterdam to see a doctor. She found that she had a lump on her chest and was a little worried. The doctor made X -rays for her and found that it was a tumor. Two months later, the lady had a breast tumor resection, and for some time radiotherapy. It was strange that, 6 weeks before she went to see the doctor, she had screened it specifically, and no tumor was found. The lady filed a complaint, and she was told afterwards that the radiologist had no fault and the complaint was rejected. At this point of view, the lady was quite aggrieved. In fact, during the screening, the radiologist discovered abnormalities and marked it as "signs of signs". It is believed that there is no need to further confirm the diagnosis. This is because the probability of detecting the tumor after a small sign is very low. It will also lead to many unnecessary discomfort and pressure.

In fact, this is related to limited attention. Because the statistical probability of tumor is found, it will not be so comprehensive when watching the film for the first time. When you look at X -rays again, the probability of finding the tumor is maximized. In the area, it is extremely difficult to find tumors. To achieve this, it not only takes years of training, but also requires a wide range of medical knowledge.

It can be seen that something you will find depends largely on what you want to find. Scientists have also conducted follow -up studies on the eyes movement of radiologists, and found that radiologists can be divided into two categories: "deep excavators" and "scanners". "Deep Digger" will choose a point on the screen, and then check all the same points on all different X -ray films. After checking the point, they continue to view a new place, and then check all X -rays. The "scanner" will continue to check the next scanning piece after a complete and careful check of a X -ray film. They can only check each X -ray film once. This information is of great significance for future training radiologists and discovering which parts they ignore in X -ray scanning.

The eye movement method of radiologists just mentioned, in fact, the technical application prospects for eye movements are broad. In the near future, the eye movement is expected to become another communication highlight after mobile phones, tablets and laptops. The eye movement can tell the merchant that the users have not seen any information, and they can also adjust the advertising position. If we install an eye movement in the car, the driver's eyes leave the road, and it will send an alarm.

The low -cost eye movement also provides the possibility of operating the computer through the eye. Imagine that you want to surf the Internet when you cook. If there is a system that allows you to use your eyes to browse the web without having to use your hands, your eyes blink are equivalent to double -click the mouse, etc. Is it particularly handy?

Although there are many information, the control of human beings is also evolving

In the process of reading a book, it is likely to check mobile phones, tablets, and computers from time to time, for fear of missing any latest information, even if there is no new information at all, it will still check it every 5 minutes. Even if you want to retreat, people will feel a trace of information anxiety. This is a new "addiction" - "information obesity".

Modern people always say that they do not sleep enough. One of the reasons is that we are "appetite" too much and eager for endless information, and this information is basically presented through the screen. This is one of the reasons why many people prefer to work at night, because in the evening, there are fewer people who disturb us and less new information. It is easier to concentrate on what they want to do without worrying about being disturbed. For some reason, we cannot close the source of information by ourselves, and this is often caused by "fear of missing information".

It is not difficult to see that, compared to the elderly, young people have to face more difficulties in this regard. The reason is that the social media network is much more important to the younger generation.

Scientific research tells us that young people use visual apps extremely frequently. Obviously, we have a soft spot for all visual products. The original social activities are now replaced by visual activities. More and more people have chosen screen communication, and the communication method is no longer limited to listening to each other's voices. As long as we glance at a limited visual information, we can know about it.

In just a short moment, we chose the most closely related information in the information vortex around us, and then deepened this information and scored.

Today, the influence of the increasingly diverse visual world on us has launched many discussions. For example, many people are unwilling to let their children come into contact with multimedia products and feel that they will steal the attention of children.

This statement has not been scientifically verified, and the truth may not be as simple as we think. It is also possible that our control of attention is evolving, because we are more and more common to external information, and humans are very good at finding the way in a new environment.

In some cases, our attention will be unconsciously attracted by some outside information, and it seems incompetent, but in fact our brain will adjust our "spotlight" accordingly accordingly, and it is so small that you ignore everything around you.For example, we often see advertisements when we go online, but we can get a blind eye and be good at watching various advertisements flying on the webpage. Even if the number of distractions is large, personal experience can still make judgments as soon as possible, and quickly transfer attention to the attention., Thus swimming in the world efficiently without being disturbed by external information.However, there is a certain limit for your neglect of all things around you.The conclusion is very hasty.In any case, we cannot become a slave to reflective attention, but we will be extremely flexible.

(Changjiang Daily reporter Qin Mengting)

【Edit: Wang Yujin】

For more exciting content, please download the "Da Wuhan" client in the major application markets.

- END -