Would that make it more or less distinctive in the peripheral vision?
I'd imagine that one's mindset would have a lot to do with what we saw during an emergency. People like me remember the oddest minutia about mechanical things and that might well keep an open channel for observation of such a system. Some of my old skippers were fine airmen but bewilderingly missed the simplest mechanical clues. It would be interesting to co-relate the reaction to such stimulus with differing people.