Final answer:
Intentional blindness is caused by cognitive load, not by anterograde amnesia, genetic disorders, or negative punishment. It's a psychological phenomenon occurring when too much focus on one task prevents the noticing of other stimuli.
Step-by-step explanation:
Intentional blindness is caused by cognitive load. This phenomenon occurs when a person fails to notice an unexpected stimulus that is in plain sight because their attention is focused on another task, event, or piece of information. This concept is part of the selective attention research and is different from anterograde amnesia, which is memory loss for events that occur after a traumatic event and affects the ability to form new memories. It's also not related to genetic disorders or negative punishment; both of which have different implications in psychological contexts. Inattentional blindness was demonstrated in an experiment where participants watching black and white objects on a screen failed to notice a red cross, highlighting the impact of cognitive load on perception.