Magic and the Human Mind
Listen to our interview with Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik. They were guests in this latest Science Forum discussion.
They are scientists at the Barrow Neurological Institute in Phoenix, and they have teamed up with magicians and illusionists to learn about the human mind.
Martinez-Conde and Macknik describe what they have discovered in their new book Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about our Everyday Deceptions.
Continue Reading ...
Why are our brains so susceptible to illusions?
How do magicians use humor to perform tricks?
What do artists like Leonardo Da Vinci have in common with magicians?
Read our conversation with Macknik and Martinez-Conde.
Additional Resources:
Best Illusion of the Year Contest:Click here for award winning illusions from around the world.
Change Blindness: British illusionists Derren Brown tests people’s attention in this video. Click below to watch the video and tell us, would you notice the swap?
Black Art: Watch French magicians Michelle and Ernest Ostrowsky perform this classic act called Omar Pasha. Then ask Macknik and Martinez-Conde how it works.
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Hi,
Just saw the video. I am referring to the video of Derren Brown – people switch. Pretty interesting experiment.
First of all, I would have noticed that it was a different person.
Second. How do you know if the people didn’t notice that it was a different person, did you ask them later? Maybe they did notice, but only 1 guy actually said something. Maybe the other people just didn’t want to say anything.
When you are approached by a person, you pick up on their vibe, their tone of voice, height. I would have totally noticed the switch.
What do you think contributes to people not realizing that they have been duped?
Maybe they were in their own little world and weren’t paying attention.
Thank you
Thanks for your comments Galina.
First, if you’ve ever been tricked by a magician who used misdirection, you probably would be tricked by the person swap trick (first created by Daniel J. Simons at the University of Illinois) about half the time.
In Simons’s experiments, he did indeed follow up and ask questions from the respondents. They would sometimes say things like, “Oh yeah, you changed to a different person in the middle there”. How could that statement ever be said?
The fact is that this effect works not because these people don’t pay attention well, but rather because they pay attention very closely ***to the task at hand***, which is giving directions. When you pay attention to something, we’ve shown in our research that everything else gets suppressed in the brain.
@Galina-
Everyone says they would notice the swap, or they would have seen the card switch, or would have notice the magician hide the object, and so on.
There’s a world of difference when you’ve been told how something works and expect versus having it play out unsuspectingly in real-time. That’s the beauty of so much of magic.
Do a quick test:
Hide behind a door, wait for someone about to walk through it, and scream like mad when they do. I bet they jump. Now do the same thing, with the same person after you’ve told them you’re going to do it. Heck, even use a new person BUT TELL THEM FIRST. I expect quite a different reaction from the informed person
Expectation is an important cognitive trick that magicians use. But we’ve seen great magicians like Juan Tamariz who manipulate your attention through misdirection even though you fully expect what will happen next (ie. he’s set you up). When achieved, its a truly magical feeling. Don’t underestimate the power of your attentional systems to suppress distractors (which in magic is the actual method) even when you think you know what is happening.
good stuff
I am an architectural designer and would benefit from any inferences I might apply to my trade from the perspective of illusion or perception. Can you steer me toward any information that can be of help in this regard. Thank you for your interest in this matter.
We discuss applications of these ideas to classical architecture in Chapter 3 of Sleights of Mind. Several architects have used visual illusions, which are similar to cognitive illusions except that they occur in the sensory (rather than the cognitive) circuits in your brain, to create amazing architectural illusions. Andrea Pozzo’s faked dome at St. Ignatius church in Rome, and also the Borromini’s illusory hallway at the Palazzo Spada (also in Rome), are just a couple examples. See also our special issue of Scientific American on 169 Best Illusions from this last summer (recently voted a Top Ten science new story by SA’s readership) for even more examples.
Trying to view Change Blindness, getting nothing but solid light blue. Carl
Hi Carl,
Try again. The video takes a little time to start, but you should be able to see it now.
Thanks,
Rhitu
Hi Carl, try this page… it works for me here (I get the same blue field you get on the comments page):
http://www.theworld.org/2010/12/29/learning-brain-magic/
Hi,
I really enjoyed the interview on The World. I watched both videos and here are my thoughts.
Are there people behind the black curtain with black costumes helping Omar Pasha?
As for change blindness, it takes me few seconds to turn my attention from the surrounding, my destination, or what’s on my mind to what a stranger is saying to me, then his/her face. Depends on the length of the conversation, I will notice certain features of that person or not. I agree with Galina that debriefing to know those pedestrians’ thoughts would be beneficial.
I hope that there will be explanations in the book. As a college student during winter break, I can’t wait to borrow the book.
Thank you for your work which helps educate us all about human beings. Happy new year! T
Thank you for your kind words. The secret to the Omar Pasha act, which is fundamentally a trick based on perception, is revealed in Sleights of Mind for tho wish to learn it (we cannot reveal it here).
Hi T,
The World’s science reporter here. An explanation to the act is also in my weekly science podcast. The audio’s here: http://www.world-science.org/podcast/neuroscience-magic-illusion-brain-macknik-martinez-conde/
Best,
Rhitu
Thanks for the link! I am listening to the mp3.
Take care and happy new year
T.
I looking forward to reading your book to learn more about this subject.
I’m the creator (artist, inventor, entrepreneur) of ZEZ (R) a woven optical fabric which transitions from one image to another as the viewing angle changes, somewhat like a lenticular. Often I have to help new viewers “see” the change they are witnessing even when the images are radically different; they don’t expect to see images change in a conventional fabric, so it doesn’t resister. When they do see the effect take place, with or without guidance, I love watching their delight in experiencing the magic.
I’m curious to know more about why we humans continue to enjoy being entertained through illusion; why being tricked or surprised is so compelling.
Thank you for your comment Wanda. Your ZEZ fabric sounds wonderful… please make a YouTUBE movie of it so that we can see it!
You may well be correct that people have a hard time seeing the transition in your fabric because they are expecting a conventional fabric. If our brains are expecting a specific percept to occur, it becomes sensitized to that exected percept and suppresses everything else. It may be the primary role of our attention systems… to help us detect expected changes in the environment quickly. It is also one of the most compelling cognitive effects that magicians pray. They will get you to expect one outcome and them, WHAM, hit you with something totally unexpected to that you are not paying attention to the secret method.
Thanks for a great show. I look forward to reading the book. I was very impressed by Omar Pasha’s Black Art in spite of the spoiler, may be even because of the spoiler. I knew that it was a trick of light and color, as I know all the magic acts are when I agree to watch a magic show. So I have two questions: 1) Given that culturally we despise lies, why do we take pleasure in such sleights of mind? 2) What does work such as yours tell us about the cognitive perception of reality? Would it be fair to say that our mind’s realities include processes that we undermine or dismiss as deception?
Hi Anannya,
I’m not sure that we culturally despise lies. After all, most of our literature and performance art is based on fiction. But you ask a great question: why is it pleasurable to be mystified by magic?? Many magicians think that it makes us feel as we once did as children: full of wonder. That may very well be the case.
Our work shows us how the brain is ***actually*** processing information, rather than how we think the brain *should* be processing information. That is, when you experience an illusion, which by our definition is any perceptual event that does not match the physical reality, you can know that the illusion is due to your brain processing and not due to the way the world actually works. We dismiss some as deception, certainly, but many we accept as reality.
Your work on how the brain processes deception is fascinating to me because you say that it is not processing it as illusion. It is making the most sense it can with all the sensory data it has. If illusion is the word for a perceptual event with two radically different points-of-view, e.g. Omar Pasha’s and the audience’s, then your work makes me re-think how and where we place the label of reality. What you are highlighting with the help of fiction, painting and magic is the daily working of the mind even outside the safe spaces of acknowledged mind bending. It is there that the implication of your work seems explosive.
In my course on science and public decision-making, we consider cognitive hurdles to good decision-making by city council members and state legislators. What do you believe is the main thing these decision-makers can learn from your research?
Magicians know that attention enhances one small part of the world, while suppressing everything else. When making a difficult decision such as a policy level decision in gorvment, the decision makers should make a list of all the tidbits of information available, no matter how unimportant or irrational they may seem. They can then sequentially focus their full attention on each item and consider them each individually and fully, in turn. Their attentional processes will enhance each particular issue, while suppressing all other distractions. Seemingly irrational bits may be elevated to the rational, with supporting evidence. Once they’ve reached the end of the list, they will have a full picture based on both the hardcore
facts and their constituents’ needs. They will be ready to decide.
Thank you all for your insightful questions and interest in our work on the neuroscience of magic. We hope you agree that the field is ripe with fascinating discoveries concerning how we perceive and how we think. The next several years of research will prove to be exciting as we delve further into how our awareness is manipulated by magic. If you are interested in learning more about what we have learned so far, please check out our new book Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions (http://sleightsofmind.com).
All the best,
Steve & Susana