Purpose

This activity highlights individual’s ability to recognise objects by hearing their visual characteristics and illustrates the importance of perception and attention to detail in gathering information.

Objective

Delegates must guess an object through hearing some physical description of it.

What You Need

• A blank sheet of paper and a pen for each delegate.
• A collection of 10 items in a cardboard box. Examples for items include: a mug, a hole puncher, car keys, a wallet, etc.

Setup

• Select one of the participants randomly or ask for a volunteer and assign him or her as the describer.
• The describer has to look into the box, pick an item and describe it in such a way that the other delegates won’t be able to see the object.
• The describer should describe the object using characteristics such as shape, colour, texture and size for 1 minute. The describer shouldn’t mention the use or the composition material of the item.
• All other delegates should write down what they think each item being described is.
• At the end of the tasks, delegates should write down their guesses on a flipchart and compare the accuracy of their choices.

Timing

Explaining the Test: 5 minutes.

Activity: 15 minutes

Group Feedback: 15 minutes.

Discussion

Ask delegates how did they find this task? Was it difficult? Why they were more successful in identifying certain items but not the others? What kind of information would have made the identification process easier? How did they find the role of the describer? How important was the way an object was explained?

What characteristics do they need to pay attention to so they can get better results? How does this scale up to their normal daily professional life?