There are an unbelievable number of illnesses causing an exaggerated startle response. MS, PTSD, autism.
Apparently lack of awareness of your surroundings is tied into startle response to peripheral vision stimuli.
Peripheral Visual Awareness: The Central Issue
“Many cases show that with functional (and therefore reversible) deficits, similar problems arise for individuals who have inefficient peripheral awareness; whenever something enters into their awareness it draws their total attention. It becomes the center of attention because they function primarily within a small central field. There is little or no control over the periphery so that objects and people of certain stimulus parameters that enter this area appear suddenly, as a surprise, and therefore a curiosity or a possible threat.”
I submit that if the majority of your conscious attention is focused on a small area in central vision, you are more prone to distractions from things you see out of the corner of your eye. People walking by, the shuffling of papers at adjoining desks, the flashing of HD lights on rows of computers: getting anything done right is going to be difficult.
There is a reason they went away from open plan to cubicles. Do they really have to learn it all over?
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