Cognitive tunneling is a psychological phenomenon where a person's attention narrows to a single point, ignoring all other information. This happens most often under high stress or during a sudden, unexpected event, causing a person's brain to transition from a relaxed state to a panicked, focused state that fixates on a narrow set of stimuli. This can lead to an inability to see the bigger picture, sometimes described as inattentional blindness, and is a common cause of errors in high-pressure situations, such as pilots or drivers missing crucial cues.
During the exam, I hit a tough question and fell into cognitive tunneling, completely missing the easier ones I had already skimmed over. Talk about stress messing with my focus!
by Emotional Cruiser November 4, 2025
Get the cognitive tunnelingmug. by Bubbalubba February 25, 2025
Get the tunnel of glovemug. by smcsr December 19, 2022
Get the Spirit Tunnelmug. That movie on Skinemax had the most intense sex scenes I've seen on regular cable; it shows everything short of tunnel cam.
by OldManMurray April 19, 2014
Get the Tunnel Cammug. by Oliolioxenfree13 May 14, 2016
Get the cake tunneledmug. When someone takes a massive and stinky crap in the bathroom and didn’t flush and you have no choice but to go in once their done.
Man, Jeff just came out of the bathroom after eating 3 burritos for lunch and now I have to enter the toxic tunnel.
by G-dog Moneypickle July 24, 2021
Get the Toxic Tunnelmug. by Wolfdiary1038 May 6, 2022
Get the Tunnel banditmug.