Your eyes collect information, but your expectations decide what makes it through.

You take in far more than you register, and expectation does the filtering, admitting what fits and quietly dropping what does not. This is why you can look directly at something for weeks and not see it until someone points it out.

When you are certain about a situation, ask what you would notice if the opposite were true. Then go looking for that specifically. The evidence is frequently already present and was simply not being admitted.