Jeremy Wolfe lecture: “OMG, I did not see that! The science of missing what is right in front of our eyes”

We cannot simultaneously recognize every object in our field of view. As a result, we deploy attention from object to object or place to place, searching for what we need. Unfortunately, our search engine does not work perfectly and we sometimes fail to find what we seek, even when that target is, literally, right in front of our eyes. This talk will illustrate some of the basic principles of human visual attention, showing how these principles play out in socially important realms.