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Wherever workers could use a reminder, up goes a sign giving it to them.

If signs managed to grab and keep our attention every time we saw them, we could plaster them all over the place. "Radioactive Materials") to simple reminders (including slogans and generic messaging like "Safety Is #1!"). Under each category, the information ranges from critical (e.g. We can break safety signs down into four rough categories: But once it has the gist of it, that signage winds up in the perceptual scrapheap. The first few times you encounter them, your brain will take in the information printed on them. Unfortunately, that's what happens with safety signs. You also don't really see them at all - not in a meaningful way.

It's not just that you don't pay attention to those details. The picture we get is useful but not entirely accurate, and details that don't have any immediate importance are omitted entirely.

In reality, our brains construct a representation of our surroundings in order to help us navigate it. We might feel like our eyes are cameras that collect complete pictures of the things around us, but that's not quite right. Sign blindness is a kind of perceptual filtering that happens at an unconscious level. No matter how brightly colored and decorated with illustrations a sign may be, it might practically become invisible once you've viewed it a few times. Your brain is hard at work directing and focusing attention to the most salient details in your environment. The effect is well known by advertisers, for example, since they are in the business of capturing your attention and have an interest in knowing how to do so more effectively. While this is especially critical in occupational safety, it is an issue everywhere signs are used.

This is a concern for safety professionals, because workers who gradually stop noticing a sign might also overlook the hazards it warns against. Whether the sign states a friendly reminder or portends some horrible doom for those who would dare ignore it, it becomes a little less impactful each time you pass by it. Essentially, when you encounter the same sign repeatedly, it starts getting filtered out with all the other unimportant details your brain chooses to ignore.