What condition prevents you from seeing things that are RIGHT THERE?

[Wendell_Wagner]

Mijin writes:

> Not really answering the OP question, but…I had this happen to me once in a
> more literal sense.
>
> I had a headache, and then I became aware of something “funny” about the
> room I was sat in, but I couldn’t figure out what it was.
>
> I went up to a mirror and waved at myself, stuck my tongue out etc. And what I
> realised was that I couldn’t see anything in the centre of my vision
> But it wasn’t as though there was a black blob or anything: I just wasn’t
> conscious of anything in the middle, the same way you aren’t conscious of a
> precise outer edge to your vision.
>
> It was just one of those one-off, weird things…

If it happens again, see a doctor immediately.

[control-z]

I haven’t experienced most of these things, but I have searched all around my car for my sunglasses, which it turns out I was wearing the whole time I searched.

[Cervaise]

@Topologist

We always blame it on the little blue men forgetting to put the object where it belongs. When you look again, you’ll see that the next crew got it right. (That will make absolutely no sense unless you’re familiar with the Twilight Zone episode linked to.)

Beat me to it.

[Maastricht]

@Meeko

There is something called “changeblindness” http://www.usd.edu/psyc301/ChangeBlindness.htm.

The opposite of changeblindness is when you can’t see something if it hasn’t moved or isn’t moving. That is partly explained by habituation ; the brain doesn’t pick up what is considered unchanging background. I know birds of prey use this when flying in the exact same spot in the air and looking down on the ground. After a while, the grass is filtered out and only the moving mice are visible.
There is a word for this. Something like astigmatism, but that isn’t it.

[Skammer]

The other day I was loading kids into the car and, my hands being full, I put the key fob in my teeth while I got everyone buckled in.

I then walked around the car, sat in the driver’s seat, and reached into my pocket for the keys. Not there. I looked in the ignition. Not there. I checked the cupholder and the area next to the seat, and on the dashboard. Where the hell are my keys? I’ll ask my wife if she has them, just gotta take these keys out of my mouth oh never mind.

[Gus_Gusterson]

I was cleaning up the dishes at a friend’s house after dinner. After I walked around the kitchen a couple of times my friend asked what I was looking for. “The dishwasher,” I said. He replied, “Don’t trip on it.” The dishwasher door was open and I had walked around it at least twice to avoid tripping over it, yet I couldn’t find it. The problem was that I was looking for a closed dishwasher and I didn’t see one.

I wonder if that is part of the phenomenon. If you expect the wallet to be oriented one way but it is in fact rotated 90 degrees from that orientation, perhaps your brain is so fixated in what it thinks it is looking for that it overlooks everything else.

[Annie-Xmas]

I came in to say what Gus said. Often it just want you are visualizing and the actual appearance of what you are looking for are two different things. The other day I was looking for the ice tea mix I knew I had bought. Looked all around the kitchen, didn’t see it. Looked in the empty grocery bag, didn’t see it. Forced myself to not think of it and then looked at the kitchen counter.

There’s the round package. I was thinking of a square package. I bought the round type cause it was half-price.

My supervisor once couldn’t find a $15,000 certified check. She torn her office up looking for it. Then I came in, looked through the file and found it. She was thinkng of the front of a check, not the back side which was plain white paper and plainly in view. She gave me $50 for finding it.

[Gus_Gusterson]

Would the name for this phenomenon be Inattentional Blindness?

[Hari_Seldon]

@Keeve

But where the hell did the catcher’s mitt go???

We have an upright piano just inside the door, where all missing things go. I will say to my wife, “Have you looked on top of the piano?” “of course”.

The day I can’t find the piano, I will be ready to check out.

[Uncommon_Sense]

@Gus Gusterson

I was cleaning up the dishes at a friend’s house after dinner. After I walked around the kitchen a couple of times my friend asked what I was looking for. “The dishwasher,” I said. He replied, “Don’t trip on it.” The dishwasher door was open and I had walked around it at least twice to avoid tripping over it, yet I couldn’t find it. The problem was that I was looking for a closed dishwasher and I didn’t see one.

I wonder if that is part of the phenomenon. If you expect the wallet to be oriented one way but it is in fact rotated 90 degrees from that orientation, perhaps your brain is so fixated in what it thinks it is looking for that it overlooks everything else.

I’m sure this is it. When I can’t find something that ends up being right in front of me it’s because I imagined it in a diferent color or shape for some reason. I thought the lighter was blue, but it was really red. Even though there was *a * lighter right there on the counter I couldn’t see it 'cause I’d been looking for something blue. I’ve done this with sunglasses, cameras, keys, etc. Looking for the wrong camera will not let me find any camera even though there may be three cameras laying about the house in plain view of everyone else.

[butler1850]

Every time this happens to me, I just assume I’ve stepped into this Twilight Zone Episode.

Either that, or my wife is moving things around on me again.

<DOH, on finishing the thread, I see that it’s already been mentioned.>

[Maastricht]

@Gus Gusterson

Would the name for this phenomenon be Inattentional Blindness?

That must be it. Thanks!

[Frylock]

Oh man, I had the worst case of this today I’ve ever heard of.

I grade tests as part of my job. I was handed a pile of 31 tests to grade, and ended up with a pile of 30 graded tests. One of them was missing.

I spent an entire workday ransacking my workspace looking for the missing test. I also looked through my bag* several times, at least ten or fifteen or so.

Here is how I looked through my bag. I took everything out of it. One at a time, I placed each item back in the bag, checking as I did so to see whether the item was the missing test or not. I would not put the item back into the bag until I had looked at it, asked myself “Is this a test?” and answering “Yes” or “No” to myself. By “each item” I mean I did not treat stacks of paper a single item. I looked singly at each and every individual seperate object in that thing, whether it be a book, a sheet of paper, or whatever.

I went through this ten or fifteen times, answering “No” to each individual item, each time, so I thought, carefully examining the object and making sure it wasn’t the test.

Finally I gave up and emailed the professor I’m working under. He didn’t seem upset so that was good.

That was this morning. Later, about an hour ago, I was going through my bag for an unrelated purpose. And the test was RIGHT THERE.

I must have held it in my hand so many times this morning, looking right at it, asking myself “Is this a test?” and telling myself “Nope.”

So weird.

-FrL-

*I feel like there’s got to be a different word for this, though I don’t know why I think that. I’m talking about a bag in which one keeps papers, books, etc., for school and other such activities.