The Truth:
Most of your field of vision is "Blind spot". Look at those dots again. What if I told you that you only "saw" the dot itself, and NOTHING else around it ?
Well it's true. The human eye has focal points closer than any optic glasses can achieve. Our vision is both telescopic and wide-angle (Without the fish eye). But our focusing lens in our eyes is shallow and ultimately, very narrow-field.
Your brain assembles what's missing. That's why you sometimes "see things out the corner of your eye" that aren't there. It's also why occasionally you'll see a clock second-hand move backwards. (Well, the blindspot is half of that phenomenon - the other half is that your brain travels backwards in time, for another discussion).
The blindspot is the key show to this. Your eye does not see in that range, your brain assembles what is left over. The blindspot can be moved away from the central dot to any length... it can be 6 inches from the central dot, or 14 inches. It's the white around the dot that your brain processes, and ultimately, fills in.
Basically, as you read this, and your window is maximized, you can read the text, but you can NOT read the "Quote Reply" buttons. Your brain fills that information in, but you can NOT "See it" until you are looking at it.