Second Prize: The Changing Room Illusion (Michael A. Cohen)
Second place in this year’s contest went to Michael A. Cohen of Amherst College and MIT and it will make you question just how well your mind is able to pay attention to what it’s seeing. The video demonstrates an effect known as gradual change blindness where “observers are unable to notice changes to the world around them when those changes occur gradually.” Over the course of about a minute, an image of a busy room slowly changes several of its details, but most of those changes aren’t noticeable until the observer is presented with before and after images which reveal a stark difference.
