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Writing
I am the co-author (with Christopher Chabris) of the book, The Invisible Gorilla, first published in 2010 (by Crown). I have also written for The New York Times, The Chicago Tribune, The Los Angeles Times, The New York Post, The Seattle Times, and The Chronicle of Higher Education, among others. My academic writing includes more than 50 chapters and journal articles, all of which are available from my reprint archive at the University of Illinois. I also blog at www.theinvisiblegorilla.com/blog.
Books
- The Invisible Gorilla. Co-written with Christopher Chabris and first published in 2010 by Crown, The Invisible Gorilla was named a New York Times editor's choice and the paperback edition became a New York Times Bestseller. It has be translated into more than a dozen languages. The book examines the many ways in which our intuitions about the mind can mislead us. It combines anecdotes and stories from politics, medicine, law, business, and other domains with evidence from scientific studies of perception and cognition to reveal the many ways in which we think we understand how our own minds work, and the many ways in which we're wrong in our beliefs. You can learn more about the book at www.theinvisiblegorilla.com.
- Change Blindess and Visual Memory. This is a book version of a special issue of the journal, Visual Cognition, that was published in 2000. I served as the editor for this triple issue of the journal. It was the first compilation of research in the then-new field of change blindness, and includes about 30 journal articles. See the research page on this site for information about change blindness.
Academic writing
For a complete list of my journal articles and academic book chapters, visit my reprint archive. Below are a few recent, representative publications.
- Simons, D. J. (2010). Monkeying around with the gorillas in our midst: Familiarity with an inattentional-blindness task does not improve the detection of unexpected events. i-Perception, 1, 3-6. pdf.
- Simons, D. J., & Jensen, M. S. (2009). The effects of individual differences and task difficulty on inattentional blindness. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 16(2), 398-403.
- Boot, W. R., Kramer, A. F., Simons, D. J., Fabiani, M., Gratton, G. (2008). The effects of video game playing on attention, memory, and executive control. Acta Psychologica, 129(3), 387-398.
- Horrey, W. J., & Simons, D. J. (2007). Examining cognitive interference and adaptive safety behaviours in tactical vehicle control. Ergonomics, 50(8), 1340-1350. (special issue on driver safety).
- Franconeri, S. L., Hollingworth, A., & Simons (2005). Do new objects capture attention? Psychological Science, 16(4), 275-281.
- Simons, D. J., & Ambinder (2005). Change blindness: Theory and consequences. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 44-48.
- Simons, D. J., & Ambinder (2005). Change blindness: Theory and consequences. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 14, 44-48.
- Simons, D. J., & Chabris, C. F. (1999). Gorillas in our midst: Sustained inattentional blindness for dynamic events. Perception, 28, 1059-1074.
Recent general audience writing
- Wall Street Journal (September 7, 2012). "Do our gadgets really threaten planes?" This essay discusses the results of a survey I conducted on whether or not people comply with FAA rules to power off their electronics during takeoff and landing. The survey shows that on nearly every flight, many people do not turn off their devices. link
- Smithsonian Magazine (September 2012). "But did you see the gorilla?" This short feature piece highlights the phenomenon of inattentional blindness as part of a special section of the magazine on invisibility. link
- Wall Street Journal (August 3, 2012). "Why we should scam the scammers." This essay explains why the Nigerian email scam uses such obvious spam messages and proposes a counter-strategy. The core idea is to look at the problem from the scammer's perspective. link
- New York Times (September 24, 2010). "Fight The Power." This essay considers the success of self-help books like "The Secret" and "The Power" by examining how their authors both fall prey to and take advantage of cognitive illusions and mistaken intuitions. link
- Chicago Tribune (July 25, 2010). "Do politicians lie, or just misremember it wrong?" This editorial commentary argues that people should consider the normal workings of memory before assuming that politicians are deliberately lying when they embellish their own records. link
- Los Angeles Times (July 25, 2010). "Digital alarmists are wrong." This editorial commentary challenges recent claims by Nicholas Carr and others that the internet and technology are fundamentally changing how we think. It notes that the real danger with technology is that it suckers us into believing we know more than we do. link
- Daily Beast (July 14, 2010). "Why financial reform will fail" (Chris Chabris and I did not write the headline). This commentary addresses the ways in which the illusion of knowledge affects financial and business decision making. link
- PBS Need to Know (July 5, 2010). "Driven to abstraction: Why Obama's abstract words are not reaching us." This commentary explores the ways in which abstract comparisons are less compelling than more concrete ones. link
- Seattle Times (June 4, 2010). "Hands-free cellphones not solution to distracted driving." This editorial commentary discusses why banning hand-held phones won't help as much as people think, noting that the evidence shows no benefits from using hands-free phones in place of hand-held ones. link
- Chronicle of Higher Education (June 1, 2010). "The trouble with intuition." This feature essay explores the dangers of trusting your gut when thinking about how your own mind works. It is our most direct challenge to some of the conclusions that Malcolm Gladwell draws in his book, Blink. link
- New York Post (May 23, 2010). "Why losers have delusions of grandeur." This commentary descibes the Dunning/Kruger effect in which the least-skilled people are the most overconfident in their own abilities. We specifically discuss the parallels between stupid criminals and experienced chess players. link
