Madelyn is walking in a mall and thinks she sees a man wearing a red dress. She takes a longer look, and realizes she has seen a man in a suit walking next to a woman in a red dress. This is a natural example of .

Illusory conjunctions  

Explanation:

Madelyn is walking in a mall and thinks she sees a man wearing a red dress. She takes a longer look, and realizes she has seen a man in a suit walking next to a woman in a red dress. This is a natural example of illusory conjunctions.  Illusory conjunctions such as visual or auditory illusory conjunction is a phenomenon that occurs when individuals combine features of two objects into one. This usually results due to diverted or overloaded attention.

Madelyn combines a man wearing suit walking next to a woman wearing red and misrepresents it as a man wearing red.