The attentional blink

The attentional blink is a temporary moment when your brain struggles to notice a second important piece of information shortly after recognizing the first. Imagine you're reading a rapid sequence of words or images; once your brain processes one item, it takes a brief pause before it can effectively recognize another. During this interval—typically about 200-500 milliseconds—you might miss or overlook the second item, even if it's clearly visible. This phenomenon illustrates how our attention has limited capacity in rapid situations, affecting how quickly and accurately we can process consecutive stimuli.