Episode 59 Dr. Daniel Simons MAY 20, 2012

Previously a 5 year member of the faculty of Harvard University’s Department of Psychology, Dr. Daniel Simons is a professor in the University of Illinois’s Department of Psychology and Beckman Institute for Advanced Science and Technology. His research interests include the cognition of vision, awareness, attention, and memory. With collaborator Dr. Christopher Chabris, Dr. Simons is famous for “The Invisible Gorilla” effect. The name for an effect of attentional blindness, our tendency to miss something when we focus on other things, the effect is so incredible, a significant number of people think not that their perception has tricked them but that the researchers tried to trick them! An author as well as professor and researcher, Dr. Simons (with Dr. Chabris) wrote a book– The Invisible Gorilla– describing the cognitive psychology of perception, attention, and memory in a compelling and easily accessible style.