For those few moments, research tells us, the nervous system takes our focus off-line and relaxes, in what amounts to a short neural celebration party. If another Waldo were to pop up during the party, our attention would be occupied elsewhere. That second Waldo would go unseen. This moment of temporary blindness is like a blink in attention, a short pause in our mind’s ability to scan our surroundings (technically, a “refractory period”). During that blink, the mind’s ability to notice goes blind and attention loses sensitivity. A slight change that might otherwise catch our eye goes by
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