Growing up, I was an avid Star Trek fan. I still am. Star Trek was the first realistic look at what the future could be. Today, much of what Gene Roddenberry envisioned in his futuristic look of man’s exploration of the stars we are now seeing come to fruition. Among these are the universal translator, tablet (iPad), smartphone, diagnostic medical meds, holograms, 3D printers, and the advent of AI.
In the third season of the original Star Trek TV series, the crew of the Enterprise encounters a distress call from the planet Scalos. The pre-recorded message informs the crew that the planet is attempting to survive a mysterious affliction, and the few remaining Scalosians had taken shelter in a specific area, desperately pleading for assistance.
As the landing party beams down to the surface, they are unable to detect any forms of life on what appears to have been a vibrant, technologically advanced civilization. The only thing out of the ordinary is the incessant buzzing of insects, harassing crew members.
Upon beaming back up to the Enterprise, the crew continues to be plagued by a harassing buzzing sensation, even as random events occur that eventually lead them to realize they have been invaded by a race of beings who exist at an incredibly accelerated rate of time. Their hyper-metabolic state makes them invisible to the human eye.
The episode is aptly named, “Wink of an Eye.”
Captain Kirk’s coffee is tainted with water from Scalos, accelerating him in the process. To an unsuspecting crew, he has been abducted. The Scalosians inform Captain Kirk of their plan to enslave the crew of the Enterprise and use them as breeding stock, as their accelerated state had rendered their men unable to reproduce.
Long story, short, Dr. McCoy concocts an antidote to the Scalosian water. Mr. Spock accelerates himself to reach the Captain, help him thwart the plans of the Scalosians, return them to their own planet, and restore the ship to the control of the Enterprise crew.
In the wink of an eye, Captain Kirk and Mr. Spock reappear in normal time, much to the relief of the crew, and the Enterprise sails off to continue its mission to explore new worlds.
So, how fast is a wink? How fast is the blink of an eye?
The blink of an eye is incredibly brief, lasting between 1/10th to 2/5th of a second. In 100 milliseconds, the blink of an eye, an automobile moving at 70 mph travels 10.67 feet. In 1/10th of a second, the blink of an eye, our amygdala records a first impression of a stranger. In that short span of time, 100 milliseconds, light can travel nearly 19,000 miles.
While that’s fast, keep in mind a hummingbird will have flapped its wings ten times by the time we have blinked only once.
Why do we blink?
Blinking is essential for lubricating, moisturizing, and cleaning the eyes, as well as delivering needed oxygen and nutrients for good eye health. When the eye becomes dry or debris accumulates, vision can become blurry. Blinking also clears away dust, debris, and irritants that could damage our delicate eye tissues while creating a smooth, moist surface that allows light to focus properly.
Most people blink 15-20 times per minute, which translates to roughly 900-1200 blinks per hour, or between 14,400 and 19,200 blinks during our waking hours each day.
That is more than 7,000,000 blinks a year.
Blinking also serves as a momentary pause, allowing the brain to process visual information and preventing sensory overload.
It allows our brain a moment in time to “blink.”
Our brains are constantly bombarded with stimuli from a variety of sources throughout the day. To make sense of the world around us, our reticular activating system filters how we process certain stimuli when several things are happening all at once.
The eyes also participate in the process by blinking.
There is a famous video from 1999, available on YouTube, that highlights this “blinking” of the mind. It’s known as the Selective Attention Test. It challenges the viewer to count how many times the students wearing white passed a basketball back and forth in a specified amount of time. It was re-released in 2010 as The Monkey Business Illusion.
These two videos demonstrate selective attention, or attentional blink, in action.
To further study this phenomenon, scientists took participants through a series of visual stimulus tests. Participants were presented with two images, T1 and T2, in successive order. As the time between presenting the images shortened, the participants' ability to detect the T2 image was increasingly impaired. The shorter the gap between T1 and T2, the more difficulty the participants had in detecting (seeing) both images.
This demonstrated the brain’s need to “blink” to process information.
As the brain is processing T1, resources needed to process the T2 image are temporarily unavailable. What these scientists uncovered is that our brain needs time to process the information it has just received. Upload information too quickly, and our brain, like an old video arcade game, temporarily “tilts” and can’t momentarily process new information.
Neuroscience studies have shown that when we are focused on our goals or engaged in thoughtful deliberation, neural impulses travel across our brain at a rate of 1-4 mph. When we are experiencing the world around us in real time, neural impulses can traverse our neural pathway at speeds up to 250 mph.
Now imagine what happens when our brains have to go from fast to slow, or slow to fast?
Our brain, needing time to make sense, “blinks.”
In the book, “The Neuroscience of You,” Professor Chantel Prat explains that this is the mental trade-off between our internal goals and being aware of the world around us. As the world around us bombards us with stimuli, and our brain struggles to make sense of it all, we can experience attentional blinks for up to 500 milliseconds (a half-second) at a time.
Like the physical blinking of the eye, we are temporarily blinded to the world around us.
Even more interesting, when we’re engaged in deep, introspective, thoughtful deliberation, this attentional blindness can stretch into minutes or hours. Time passes without our conscious awareness. For example, I know when I’m deeply engrossed in an intentional task, such as writing, recording a podcast, or creating training content, time seems to fly by as I’m oblivious to the world around me.
We can experience attentional blinking when we are driving, attending a concert or sporting event, when we’re in a fast-paced, busy environment, or experiencing information overload.
Now, here’s where things get interesting.
We all experience attentional blinking at some level every day. That leaves gaps in our thinking and our memory. Most of our brains don’t like open loops, as they require energy to keep random thoughts active in our minds. So, our brains will work to bring order to disorder, effectively closing the loop.
Using a process called confabulation, the brain draws on past experience and known patterns to make sense of incomplete or ambiguous information. The brain essentially constructs a narrative (makes up a story) to fill the gap in our perception and memory.
That means that parts of our day, things we believe are true and actually happened to us, may be made-up stories to fill in the gaps. What we would stake our reputation on may be nothing more than a mental construct, a narrative we’ve told ourselves to fill the gap in our perception and memory.
It’s the mind’s way to deal with the blink that happens all day, every day.
Perhaps that’s one reason why ten people can witness the same event at the same time, from the same basic perspective, and provide ten different stories of the event itself. It’s also why a single witness to an event may be challenged as to their reliability.
So, it has to make one wonder how much of what we believe to be true, based on what we experienced in our lives, is reality or a work of self-created fiction.
In the 2008 movie, Vantage Point, the assassination of an American president is told and retold from several different perspectives. Each person who witnessed the event saw something the other witnesses didn’t. When pieced together, it provided the investigators with a more coherent picture of what truly happened and who committed the crime.
This is why John Maxwell says, “One is too small a number to achieve greatness.”
One of the overlooked benefits of having a team of good people around us is that they can help us overcome the Brain Blinks we experience, and they experience as well. As in the movie Vantage Point, each member of the team brings a different perspective, which helps us fill the gaps with real information rather than self-created works of fiction.
We all see the world differently. We all have our own blind spots, and we all experience our own Brain Blinks at different times. As we come together as a Team and collaborate, we bring our own perspective that enables every other team member to see and hear what they may have missed as they “blinked” at the wrong time.
We all have blind spots, but not the same blind spots. What one person may miss, another member of the team may pick up on, adding another layer of perspective that may have been overlooked, ignored, or not seen because of the “blink.” So, everyone’s contribution, in totality, creates a better picture of reality, helping us to make more informed decisions that lead to better outcomes.
Here are five ways a Team can help you overcome the “Blink.”
First, they can help reduce the cognitive load. When we’re facing a challenging or stressful situation, this can exacerbate attentional blink. By assigning responsibilities, having each person operating in the area of their strength zone, we share the stress load, reducing it for all concerned, and reducing the likelihood we “blink” more often.
Secondly, a team can help to identify and prioritize information. By examining what needs to be done, the life experience and expertise of each member bring a fresh perspective that helps fill the “blink” gap with legitimate information, not a concocted story. It also allows the team to speed up, or slow down, as needed to evaluate what is needed to win.
Thirdly, a team provides different perspectives. The ability of a team to examine a project, challenge, or situation from multiple angles leads to a better, more comprehensive understanding of the issues and what needs to be done to address or mitigate them. Again, we all “blink,” but at different times.
Fourth, attentional blink can be influenced by emotional factors, such as stress or anxiety. A team also serves as an emotional support network where members are encouraged, inspired, and attended to. This builds emotional resilience, expanding the capacity of the team to confidently navigate through challenging times while minimizing “blinking.”
Lastly, team members can pool their individual observations and knowledge to create a more complete picture of the project, situation, or circumstance. This can be extremely helpful if one member experiences a “blink” and misses an important piece of information. Each member, bringing their own perspective, may catch what others may miss.
Remember, we all experience “The Blink.” Some of us experience it more frequently than others, but we all experience it. While having a team doesn’t directly address the underlying neurological mechanisms of attentional blink, it can create an environment that minimizes the “Blink.” It also maximizes the use of available information and resources to fill in the gaps with real information rather than self-created works of fiction.
So, think about that the next time you blink.
Now you’re going to wonder, “What did I miss?”
