I believe that humans tend to steer where they look. Previous experience mostly in off road motorcycle racing I was taught to see the line that was rideable not the obstructions. That isn't generally as intuitive as you might think and requires some mental training. I found the training served me well in other sports and activities including bicycling especially mountain biking. The context was threading the way through a sea of obstructions, but I think it applies to hitting a single obstruction as well. The term for it is target fixation and I think there has been some study of it. Not sure if there is any real peer reviewed study or not.