If you can spot the T hidden in a collection of Ls within 10 seconds, you’re something special.
Johns Hopkins University published the puzzle, stipulating that “it won’t be red,” which is key.
The university found that the “won’t be red” message actually slowed people down in finding the T amidst the Ls.
“Individuals who explicitly ignore distracting information improve their visual search performance, a critical skill for professional searchers, like radiologists and airport baggage screeners,” said lead author Corbin A Cunningham in a press statement.
“This work has the potential to help occupations that rely on visual search by informing future training programs.”
If you haven’t solved the puzzle, here’s the T:
The ability to ignore is a key part of paying attention, the researchers found.
“Attention is usually thought of as something that enhances the processing of important objects in the world,” co-author Howard Egeth, a professor of Psychological and Brain Sciences at Johns Hopkins, said in the release.
“This study, along with some recent work in which we measured brain activity while subjects responded selectively to stimuli presented in the midst of competing stimuli, highlights the importance of active suppression of those competing stimuli. It’s what I think of as the dark side of attention.”
(H/T - The Mirror)
