If I’d show you a simple drawing for just a second, how many details would you remember? If you would see the picture of a person for the length of a second, and after a second of pause you’d be presented with the same picture containing a different person, you think that you would notice the difference?

If you’re thinking of answering ”Yes!” to that question, you’d better think again…

Daniel Simmons, a psychologist at the Illinois University, conducted a simple experiment, about which you can read more by downloading it.

Here’s a short excerpt:

We created a situation that allowed us to surreptitiously substitute one individual for another in the middle of a natural, real-world interaction. The situation we chose was asking directions of a pedestrian on a college campus. We temporarily interrupted this interaction by carrying a door between the experimenter and the pedestrian. While the experimenter was occluded by the door, another experimenter took his place and continued the interaction after the door had passed. If change detection failures are based on the passive nature of mediated stimuli, these substitutions should be clearly detectable.

You’re still thinking that your visual memory is good, don’t you? Well, let’s put it to the test.

Click here for a very simple short term visual memory test. You’ll be presented with groups of 4 simple images which you’ll have to remember. The test requires five minutes to complete, after which you’ll be presented with your (shocking) score. This test is part of an experiment at the Visual Cognition Laboratory at Harvard University, so it’s good stuff.

Be warned: your memory may be way worse than you think it is…

PS: My test score was 1.878. Can you beat me? Let’s see your score.

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