"Last week I noticed the most magnificent red-orange-yellow leaves of this tree against the backdrop of the otherwise brown and barren landscape of late autumn. This photo was taken from my window, the one I walk by multiple times a day, every day. And yet, there were many days prior that I walked right by this window and literally did not notice this spectacle of nature in front of me."
"While our sensory system is flooded with information at any moment and can process one billion bits of information per second, the brain filters this information into conscious thought that can only process 10 bits of information per second. As quoted in Technology Network, "this constraint reflects deep evolutionary logic: the brain is not designed to process everything at once, but to focus selectively on what matters for survival and decision-making.""
The sensory system receives about one billion bits of information per second while conscious thought can process only about 10 bits per second. The brain filters incoming information and allows only a tiny portion into conscious awareness, shaping perception, action, and daily movement. A vivid scene can be missed despite repeated exposure because the filter did not select it for attention. Neural processing displays a negativity bias from infancy, producing stronger responses to negative stimuli and stronger memory for negative information than for positive. Selective attention and negativity bias together cause many neutral or positive details to be overlooked.
Read at Psychology Today
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