By: Cassie Glancy

Stop what you are doing. Look up. What do you see? Are you aware of what has been going on around you? Chances are, if you are reading this in public, then you probably missed something going on around you, even if you think you are completely aware.

Lt. David James with University Police has been known to warn students against walking and texting or listening to music.

“We have a big problem with students being distracted,” said James. “They’ll be focused on the music and whatever it is that they’re texting or whatever game they’re playing on their phone and they don’t sometimes even look up to see that they’re walking across the street.”

The Louisville Cardinal conducted an experiment. We wanted to see how aware people are when they are using a cell phone or listening to music.  If you were around campus on the night of Nov. 7 or the afternoon of Nov. 8, then you probably saw Iron Woman around campus wearing a red tutu.

Actually, you probably saw her if you were not texting or checking the weather as you were walking to class.

Iron Woman targeted students who were using technology as they were around campus and walked beside them going unnoticed every time. Even the most diligent were shocked to find out that they did not see the super hero.

Nathan Richardson was crossing the street in front of the Ville Grille when Iron Woman was waiting for him at the street corner. As soon as he grew close, she followed beside him as he was walking and looking down at his cell phone. He said that he did not notice anything unusual on campus that day.

“I am kind of tired, but on a normal day I might have noticed her, but I was texting so probably not,” Richardson said. “I noticed what was going on at the college of business.”

Inside the SAC, Mary Kay Carroll was sitting at a couch near Jazzman’s typing a paper on her laptop.  Iron Woman walked past her not once, but three times unnoticed.

“Well I haven’t been here that long, but I did just notice Iron Woman sitting right over there,” said Carroll. “I didn’t notice her walking past me, once you got my attention I noticed her over there.”

Iron Woman saw Kim Gessford walking to class as she was looking down at her phone. She walked next to Gessford from the start of the Business School that is closest to Third Street, and followed her until she was almost to Strickler. She did not see Iron Woman for the few minute walk.

“I didn’t see her probably because I was reading cnn.com when I was walking,” said Gessford.

Why is it that even though we think we know what is going on around us, we are not attentive? Psychology professor Keith Lyle, who specializes in memory and attention, has the answers.

“We call it inattentional blindness and it is really a robust psychological phenomena where people don’t see things that they are not paying attention to,” Lyle said. “It is not where you are looking, but it where you are attending where you paying attention to.”

Lyle described inattentional blindness to be when people walk past a friend that they looked directly at but did not realize whom they were.  It is not that you are ignoring that friend, but instead it is your brain having the inability to focus on seeing your friend if your brain is thinking about something else.  If someone was talking on their cell phone then their focus is on the voice on the other end and not where they are walking or who else is around them.

“Out in the world, the things that are out there activate the brain. They lead to a certain amount of brain activity, but in order to perceive something, to actually be consciously aware of something, you have to hit a certain amount of activity and attention is the thing that increases the volume on that brain activity,” said Lyle.

Dr. Lyle discussed the potentially dangerous effects of texting while walking and also driving. He said that our brains have a limit on how much attention we can give at a time.

“Obviously in order to respond to the world, you have to perceive it first. And that perceiving is not going to happen if people are not paying attention.”

According to James, distracted students can end up facing these dangerous effects.

“We have distractions relating to vehicle accidents. We have distractions relating to near misses,” said James.

Inattentional blindness happens without the distraction of cell phone, iPods and laptops. A study was conducted that involved radiologists examining an X-ray. What they did not know was a dancing gorilla hidden in the top right corner. Eighty-three percent of those who were asked to search for cancer nodules missed it, according to HuffingtonPost.

In order to be less distracted, students need to start being aware of their surroundings.

“They have to be more conscious about what it is they’re doing and where they’re at,” said James.