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perception
Your brain goes blind for a moment after noticing something.
The attentional blink refers to a period of diminished accuracy in detecting a second visual target, rather than an absolute inability to register stimuli.
The performance decline typically occurs when the second stimulus appears between 200 and 500 milliseconds after the first, with immediate stimuli often avoiding the effect (lag-1 sparing).
You are literally unaware of the world for half a second at a time.
Where this comes from
- Study
- Raymond, Shapiro, and Arnell, 1992
- What the check found
- The claim presents a flexible performance dip as an absolute failure of the visual system, ignoring the specific 200-500ms interval and the phenomenon of lag-1 sparing.
- Confidence
- Solid, with limits
Related
One of these every day, and every one names the study it came from. When a finding is contested, it says so.