Set II

I've abandoned any hope of cutting back on my Set playing. It doesn't keep me from anything important that I'm supposed to be doing, so what the hell?
Such intensive, obsessive Set playing has built upon my first Set entry. Starting on the assumption that the standard way of playing involves whole pattern recognition (as opposed to serial pattern recognition), it would seem easier if one were to place cards more slowly. This would allow for a predisposition towards possible sets from the cards already placed, since one becomes more familiar with the cards that are already laid. I'm not sure entirely how to explain it, but I'll try:
If you have (re)cognized one card, then your neurons are already warmed towards sets that could possibly include that card. That means, when you lay down another card you will see if that card is part of a set faster than if you were looking at lots of cards. Looking at lots of cards warms lots of areas tied to particular sets. Which is noise. (That feels confusing. Someone let me know if they want clarification.) So you might lay down another card, but that does little for recognizing sets that are there, because there is no Definite (meant in a form closer to Define than the ways in which definite are usually used) set that it and two other cards fit into; there are lots of sets that one or two cards fit into already on the table. What's to say you don't try to fit the new card into the wrong set because there are more wrong sets activated than right sets? Like trying to fit a square peg in a round hole.
However. This idea is slightly compromised by pointing out that if you put down a new card you are automatically looking for the ways that That Particular card fits with the other cards on the table. There are also Fewer cards to compare it to. Both of these results make it much easier to go about the game in a Linear fashion.
How do these two things that both seem intuitive fit together? Can they exist together?
I need to think more about this. I might also rework this presentation at some point.