Concept · Cognitive Bias: Attention and perception biases
Repetition blindness
Origin: Kanwisher, 1987
Biological Parallel
Predators develop search image for specific prey—but this creates repetition blindness to the same species in different contexts. A hawk hunting voles in grass may fly over identical voles on rocks without recognizing them. The pattern-matching system categorizes 'vole-in-grass' as distinct from 'vole-on-rock.' Repetition without context match fails to trigger recognition. Perception isn't passive recording; it's active categorization. Same stimulus, different category, invisible.