Many people describe awareness in different ways. I'm reading Trail Safe right now, and it's talking about seeing vs awareness. It talks about the military & law enforcement Color Code of danger awareness. Last week, Michael Bane talked about awareness on his podcast as having 100 pennies to spend. Motorcycle training guru Keith Code describes it as a ten dollar bill. They're all talking about the same thing, with different terms.
Attention.
My beliefs are closest to what Keith Code talks about, but it applies to more than just motorcycling. He says you have $10 to spend on your awareness. When you first start riding, you're spending a lot of your $10 to keep the bike upright and going the right direction at the right speed. You're still learning the controls, the amount of clutch needed, which pedal does what, etc. People will honk their horn instead of canceling their turn signal. But, as you gain experience, you need to use less of that $10 for the same things. As you gain time with the motorcycle, all these things become subconscious, allowing you to spend more of that $10 on other parts of your riding. You can't ignore those basic operations, but you spend very little on them. Professional road racers are able to adjust their line through a corner in inches, and can run the same line lap after lap. My lines vary by yards, and never the same line twice.
I was driving in the mountains Sunday. We were in a hilly area, with many blind crests and turns (heavy forest and hills). It has also rained so the roads were wet. It was cloudy. As I reached each bend, each turn, each rise, each valley, I was concentrating on the road, trying to figure out where it was going next. I spent very little concentrating on my speed, yet it stayed relatively constant. My steering inputs were smooth. I was also watching for traffic (oncoming and cross), and due to a sign posted miles earlier, I was looking for bicyclists. Yet, as I crested a rise and I saw the road straight in front of me, my passenger called out "DEER!". I was passed them before it registered what he was talking about: a small herd of deer had just crossed the road and were starting up the hillside. The last deer was 10 feet away from the road. I would have seen a deer in the road, and I think I would have caught the movement of a deer moving towards the road, but the brown deer, slightly above my sight line, off to the left side, against the grassy brown hillside were completely invisible until it was too late to do anything about them. It was a filter I have in place. I was spending less of my attention on these other inputs.
Counter example. I was riding my motorcycle on a long trip. In the mountains again. I come around a bend and see the pavement is bright red. I follow the red to see an elk carcass in the culvert beside the road. I was looking at the road, so I saw the red first. I wonder if my friend and others saw the elk first?
As I said, this applies to everything. A retailer uses it to catch shoplifters, a hunter uses it to spot game, a police officer to see crimes, a teacher to catch mistakes.
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