Motion induced blindness

Hey there kiddo! Have you ever played a game where you have to look for something that's hiding behind other things? Like when you have to find a hidden object in a picture? Well, scientists have found out that sometimes our brains can play a trick on us and make us miss things that are right in front of us because of something called motion induced blindness.

Okay, so imagine you're staring at a picture with lots of colorful dots all over it, like a polka dot dress. Now imagine that some of those dots are moving around in circles, like they're dancing. Your brain is very good at noticing movement, so it will focus on those moving dots and ignore the ones that are staying still. This is because your brain thinks that the moving dots might be more important or dangerous or exciting, so it tells your eyes to pay attention to them instead of the other dots.

But here's the tricky part: sometimes the moving dots can create patterns or shapes that trick your brain into thinking that there's something missing or disappearing. It's like when you're playing a game of hide-and-seek and your friend is hiding behind the curtain, but you don't notice them because your brain thinks the curtain is just a plain wall. That's what motion induced blindness is like - your brain is so focused on the moving dots that it doesn't notice the dots that are disappearing or changing shape.

Scientists use motion induced blindness to study how our brains process visual information and how we perceive the world around us. So next time you're playing a game with moving objects, remember that sometimes your brain might miss something right in front of you because it's too busy focusing on the things that are moving.