How many times, in my data processing career, did I say gentle things like, "is the printer on?"

The one phenomenon that stands out for me is this: if someone asks me to help them because they can't find something on the screen (usually an icon or link), I tell them to take their hand off the mouse. In most cases this works.

I do it myself. If I just can't see something I know should be on the screen, I take my hand off the mouse and 9 times out of ten, there it is!

My guess about the causes of the hand-on-the-mouse-partial-blindness is that the part of the brain in charge of moving the mouse conflicts with the part of the brain that sees.

Spiritual metaphor? Hmmm. Can we "see" some things better when we are not distracted by holding the controls?