Ok, this is amazing - y'all are gonna love it.

Click on this link

Now after the video loads (I understand that it may not work in Firefox...), when you click on the play button...

1) COUNT the # of passes of WHITE SHIRT people ONLY
2) ANY pass counts, even if it has a ball bounce in between passes

When done counting, post the # of passes you saw. Then, see the spoiler in my next post...

- Jon

I counted 14

I saw this shown at a knowledge management conference I attended.

Spoiler:
Bar crefba va gur zvqqyr bs gur nhqvrapr ynhturq irel ybhqyl zvqjnl guebhtu gur ivqrb, naq V erzrzore guvaxvat, JGS? Gura nsgre gur cerfragre nfxrq hf gb envfr bhe unaqf sbe rnpu pbhag (12, 13, 14) jr jngpurq vg ntnva naq rirelbar fnj vg.

my count is 14

Well, it didn't work on me, I guess I'm part of the "other" 50%. BTW, the links in the spoiler just don't work in my MS IE 6. Pretty cool concept though and I've noticed it happen to me in different circumstances.

Yeah, I can't figure out how to get the links to work in the spoiler...

Spoiler:
Jrveq, V unir n qhqr va zl ohvyqvat gung V whfg fubjrq guvf gb nf jryy. Ur jngpurq gur ivqrb gjvpr, fnvq "14" rnpu gvzr. Jura V nfxrq uvz vs ur fnj nalguvat vagrerfgvat va gur ivqrb ur fnvq "jryy, n tbevyyn jnyxrq bhg qhevat gur ivqrb, ohg gung'f vg..." Nznmvat gung fbzr crbcyr whfg frr vg, naq bguref ner gbb cerbpphcvrq jvgu onyy cnffvat gb abgvpr!

ROFL
Yah- 14. Totally caught up in it.

I totally fell for it. LOL.

Sounds like an SEP Field to me.

I saw it the first time and got the count right. I didn't understand the point of the exercise until I read all the spoilers though!

Here's my theory.

It's just your brain filtering out unimportant data. When I'm reading a webpage, my mind filters out useless banner ads on the page. The unimportant data doesn't contribute to the success of the mission (of counting the number of passes) so it never enters into your conscious mind.

However, as I was watching this video for the first time, I was much more perceptive to the entire scene due to jbauer implying the strangeness of it. In addition, the "Visual Cognition Lab" page title caught my eye. So my mind really had two missions: (1) to count the number of passes and (2) to figure out what the "trick" is. Thus, all data in the video was deemed important by my unconscious (or preconscious?) and was passed on into my conscious for analyzation.

What does the test say about me because I Spoiler:
tbg gur pbeerpg pbhag naq fnj gur zbaxrl ba gur svefg gel, jvgubhg nal njnerarff gung gurer jnf n "gevpx" gb vg? Same first-watch reasoning as l0ser.

The best part about the video? About 1/3 way in, one of the girls gets hit in the head with a ball. But she keeps on playing like a champion!!

for those of you keeping score at home:
14
felt silly the second time I watched it.

I counted 14

And Spoiler:
V fnj gur tbevyyn nf jryy

Does that make me special?

If you liked that one, check out this card trick.

Ok, the card trick had me completely fooled.

Wow, the card trick blew my supposed ADD advantage right out the window. I was too focused on "how are they trying to distract my attention from the 'magic'? Oh, did she just bend the corner of a card with her hand? Did he just find the bent corner to put the card in? Spoiler:
Jnvg, jub'f fvggvat gurer va gur pbeare?!"