When you shift your focus from one thing to another, a tiny gap inattentioncalled attentional blink is created.
It only lasts for about half a second, so we barely notice it.
Your brain has limited attentional resources.
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In some cases, you might even notice that some things seem to simplyslide past you unnoticed.
In many cases, observers fail to see the second target when it occurs soon after the first one.
Why Does It Occur?
If a second event occurs during this critical processing time, it will simply be missed.
There are a few different theories that seek to explain the attentional blink.
Inhibition theory suggests that perceptual confusion occurs during the process of identifying targets, resulting in an attention gap.
Another popular theory is the two-stage processing theory.
According to this idea, processing a series of items involves two different stages.
While that half-second period might seem very small, critical things can happen that can affect your safety.
A deer might leap out into the road.
The car in front of you might slam on its brakes.
You might even start to drift slightly into the other lane.
The attentional blink might be tiny, but it can certainly have serious consequences in real-world prefs.
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