Today as I was driving home from a friend's house in the dark. As I was driving, the car in front of me turned on its left blinker. But it didn't blink. It just shined steady. And I became confused. At first I thought that maybe it was a brake light and the right one was out. But it was yellow, and the red brake lights were already on. Then I thought that maybe it was broken. But then I thought that maybe that's just how this car's lights worked. It was a left turn light that had turned on. So why had it confused me so that it didn't blink? Why couldn't this car be different?

Then I thought back a couple months when I saw another car with a strange blinker. This one had three lights, which turned on one after the other to make an arrow pointing left. While this was indeed noticeable, I would not say that it produced the same confusion that the steady light caused. Why? I would say it was because the lights on the arrow were still blinking, which is what I'm used to seeing a turn signal do. Even though it blinked much differently, it still blinked.

So how much do constants like a blinking turn light embed themselves into our brain? Is it just me who was confused by this occurrence, or would anyone on the roads who saw this car's turn signal be confused for a moment? What kinds of deviations from an anticipated constant will confuse people?