Personally if an active roll rolled lower than taking 10 (i.e. Passive) then I could simply explain that as the person by specifically looking for something, they focused on the wrong thing and ended up looking the wrong way completely - whereas if he hadn't tried to focus on anything in particular he may have had a better chance of noticing.This is a great explanation of the Take 10 vs. Active Roll mechanic. In fact, I fell in love with the Passive Skill concept the moment I saw it. It was a total epiphany I'd never even considered before, dispite all the time I spent listening to the rogue player in my Age of Worms game say "I move five feet and search for traps." Lord that was tedious.
There are other things from 4e that I'd like to bring into a Pathfinder game, but haven't or don't know how to. I love healing surges, fer instance, and the 'marked' ability for defenders.
I also love the way monsters get special little abilities which promote a unique style of play for each one. Little stuff like bonuses to damage when next to an ally or a free step if missed in melee. I haven't added any of those abilities to PFRPG monsters, but I certainly use them as cues to roleplay battles enough to make each monster more characterful.
Well, if the rogue really wants to search everything carefully, and they aren't under pressure, you could have them take a 20 and note down and tell them the time it took to be so thorough. Be sure to throw in attacks and disruptions though.