Book Reading #44 - Why We Make Mistakes

Chapter 4: We Wear Rose Colored Glasses

Summary:
This chapter discusses the way humans remember events. In several studies done it was found that people cast themselves in a more positive light then they should when remembering events. Some examples such as college kids remembering their high school grades as being higher than they actually were are given throughout the text.The author also discusses how people can act as though they are doing good when all evidence shows that they are not. This point is shown by gamblers who act as though they are great at it when they are actually losing money. A study showed that a likely cause is that when remembering losses the gamblers perceived them more as times they almost won.

Discussion:
This chapter was enjoyable. I particularly liked the explanation of how gamblers don't lose, they just almost win.

Chapter 5: We Can Walk and Chew Gum - but Not Much Else

Summary:
This chapter discusses how people are not nearly as good at multitasking as they think they are. In truth, when we multitask we are simply switching our attention instead of dividing it. The chapter also describes how it takes time to concentrate after a distraction and how focusing on a task can make us blind to obvious things happening around us. The chapter ends with specific examples of how we get distracted in cars.

Discussion:
This chapter reminded me of an experience I had in a psychology class. The professor played a video of kids passing a ball around and asked us to count how many times the ball was passed. At the end of the video she turned to the class and asked "did you see the guy in the gorilla suit?" As it turns out a guy in a gorilla suit walks right through the kids, did a dance, and then walked away. I could not believe I had missed that when she played the video again.