Just think about this when you decide whether or not to have that one last beer before driving home from the 4th of July picnic this year . . .
From University of Washington News:
‘Ape-earances’ can be deceiving for many under the influence of alcohol
It’s pretty difficult to overlook the proverbial 800-pound gorilla, or even an average-size person dressed in a gorilla suit.
But a new study indicates that people who were given a simple visual task while mildly intoxicated were twice as likely to have missed seeing the person in a gorilla suit than were people who were not under the influence of alcohol.
The study, appearing in the current issue of the Journal of Applied Cognitive Psychology, is the first to show visual errors caused by “inattentional blindness” are more likely to occur under the influence of alcohol. This phenomenon occurs when important, but unexpected, objects appear in the visual field but are not detected when people are focused on another task, according to Seema Clifasefi, a postdoctoral psychology researcher at the University of Washington.
[more]
UPDATE: Damsel tells me that she read that drivers using Cell Phones are also subject to “inattentional blindness” just the same as drivers under the influence of alcohol or drugs.