Test Your Observational Skills: How Well Do You Pay Attention?

In this video by BuzzFeedBlue, you’ll be tested on how well you pay attention in general.

For the test, count how many red cards can you observe in the shuffled deck of cards.

Could you count all the red cards in the deck?  During the time in which the decks of cards were shuffled, seven things in the background changed. Did you manage to notice any of these changes while the deck was being shuffled?

It doesn’t matter how good you think you are at paying attention —  sometimes huge changes around us go unnoticed.

SEE ALSO: Here’s a New Way to Overcome Performance Anxiety, According to Neuroscience

Here is a perfect example: a famous video created in the late 1990s by psychologist Dan Simons and Chris Chabris from the University of Illinois. The video shows two small groups of students passing around a basketball to one another and the viewer is instructed to count how many times players wearing white pass the ball

Did you notice the gorilla walking through the students, even beating on its chest as it discreetly snuck through the group as they passed along the basketball?

The experiment is one of the most famous psychology tests ever created, according to Braindecoder.  Just because your attention is focused on something else, something as out-of-the-ordinary as a gorilla passing by can go unnoticed.  In the professional world, the art of paying attention is really important and is vastly applicable to many different job sectors. Paying attention to the details could give you a competitive advantage over others.

Attention is noticing something without trying to change it. Attention takes time to fully explore and discover — be patient, don’t rush, and observe the world one second at a time.

You might also like: Here's a Personality Test with Actual Scientific Basis