Thinking outside the box

It is stating the obvious to observe that we so often only see in a situation what we expect, or think we see. Most of us are not trained observers, and are surprisingly subjective in our assessments.

An amusing experiment with a serious purpose is to show to a group of people a 30-second film shows six people playing basketball, three in black shirts and three in white. They are asked to count the number of times one team passes the ball. At the end of the film, they are asked if they saw anything unusual. Most do not. The unusual thing is: halfway through the film...