Attentional blink

Biological Parallel

After detecting a predator, prey animals exhibit a refractory period where they miss subsequent threats—the 'psychological blink.' Escape responses consume attention: rabbits fleeing one hawk won't detect a second predator for critical seconds. The mechanism: threat detection triggers fight-or-flight, monopolizing neural processing. Evolution optimized for single-threat environments; multiple simultaneous predators overwhelm the attentional refresh rate. Sequential processing creates vulnerability windows.