The Jim Joyce call was just as clear in freeze-frame as these images are. And Jim Joyce thought he made the right call. He was sure of it. Until he saw the video. Then he realized he made a mistake, felt horrible, and apologized profusely.
A famous experiment was conducted, where viewers were shown a short video of people passing a ball around in a room. Some of the people are wearing white shirts. The task of the viewer is to count the number of passees between people with white shirts. You can see the video here:
Selective Attention Test
The results are pretty astonishing. IIRC, about half the people who watch this video the first time - including myself - never see the other thing that happens in the video. You're blind to it, because you're paying attention to something else.
So the Jim Joyce case is completely relevent, and illustrates a real-world case where this can happen. Joyce a) had motivation to get the call right, b) was as experienced and respected an official as you can find, and c) had a very simple and straightforward call to make. And he blew it. The soccer ref didn't have b) and c). At this point, we can only speculate about a).
Add new comment
1