Of course the dieters were not physically blinded; they were just mentally distracted. Psychologists call this an attentional blink. The food picture, now gone, had made them mentally blink. When the dot appeared, their minds were elsewhere, still thinking about the food. All of this happened in a fraction of a second, too quick to control. Too quick to even be aware of. The title of the study says it best: “All I Saw Was the Cake.”
