Mind Hacks

Hack #19. Release Eye Fixations for Faster Reactions

It takes longer to shift your attention to a new object if the old object is still there.

Shifting attention often means shifting your eyes. But we’re never fully in control of what our eyes want to look at. If they’re latched on to something, they’re rather stubborn about moving elsewhere. It’s faster for you to look at something new if you don’t have to tear your eyes away—if what you were originally looking at disappears and then there’s a short gap, it’s as if your eyes become unlocked, and your reaction time improves. This is called the gap effect.

In Action

The gap effect can be spotted if you’re asked to stare at some shape on a screen, then switch your gaze to a new shape that will appear somewhere else on the screen. Usually, switching to the new shape takes about a fifth of a second. But if the old shape vanishes shortly before the new shape flashes up, moving your gaze takes less time, about 20% less.

It has to be said: the effect—on the order of just hundredths of a second—is tiny in the grand scheme of things. You’re not going to notice it easily around the home. It’s a feature of our low-level cognitive control: voluntarily switching attention takes a little longer under certain circumstances. In other words, voluntary behavior isn’t as voluntary as we’d like to think.

How It Works

We take in the world piecemeal, focusing on a tiny part of it with the high-resolution center of our vision for a fraction of a second, then ...