As the non-animated, swirling images show us, our brain processes everything before it becomes conscious. You can focus on any bit of it to stop it swirling, but it’ll carry on outside your focus.
Which leads to the amazing Colour changing card trick. Even primed, I missed it.
Change blindness looks at some more of these issues. I couldn’t for the life of me spot the change in the rabbit photo, either.
From bunnies to birds: Why Angry Birds works so well. Summary: it is very well crafted in terms of cognitive reveal.
And finally, all this cognitive mess means we take odd decisions in times of uncertainty. I liked the discussion around “threat narratives” and “zero sum”, especially.