Looked but failed to see...

This blog post describes the fascinating, recent scientific explanations for why we fail to see things that are right in front of us. Most of the time, it doesn’t matter that we’re failing to see things in front of us. We might sometimes wonder why we just hunted everywhere for our keys, only to find out they’d been right in front of us. But things I’ll describe have some real implications for many aspects of our lives, and are important to understanding how human vision works. In a later blog post, I’ll explain why I think these things are essential to understanding pictures as well.

When Bush ducked and Maliki didn't flinch as the first shoe sailed toward them, it was a real-world example supporting the theory that there are two independent pathways in the human visual system.

the distinct subjective perceptual quality which makes some items in the world stand out from their neighbours and immediately grab our attention.