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The Other Side of Magic.

TLDR
It is argued that perceptual and cognitive principles governing how humans experience hidden things and reason about them play a central role in many magic tricks, and how insights from perceptual psychology provide a framework for understanding why these tricks work so well.
Abstract
When magicians perform spectacles that seem to defy the laws of nature, they do so by manipulating psychological reality. Hence, the principles underlying the art of conjuring are potentially of interest to psychological science. Here, we argue that perceptual and cognitive principles governing how humans experience hidden things and reason about them play a central role in many magic tricks. Different from tricks based on many other forms of misdirection, which require considerable skill on the part of the magician, many elements of these tricks are essentially self-working because they rely on automatic perceptual and cognitive processes. Since these processes are not directly observable, even experienced magicians may be oblivious to their central role in creating strong magical experiences and tricks that are almost impossible to debunk, even after repeated presentations. We delineate how insights from perceptual psychology provide a framework for understanding why these tricks work so well. Conversely, we argue that studying magic tricks that work much better than one intuitively would believe provides a promising heuristic for charting unexplored aspects of perception and cognition.

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
Perspectives on Psychological Science

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
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!3!#4+!$!$!$
)!#%!'#)!$)
)*))**+5#$#)$
!$!!!$)!)!!
%&6789:67;9&$<=(8879>!&=)=
(8879=&$(8?9@+(8?')!!#
!!!)!!!!)#)
!$))!!+
@#$*!)!!!#$
%,)(88+6')$!#)
$!$!$))!!!
)%>(889&$@(8)
*)))!'+=!!)
%=AB=066C9#66C9=(88?')
.$)!!#$!*!)!!!$
)!$)!!!)!$
!+!)%>!=!667'*
Page 3 of 44 Perspectives on Psychological Science
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For Review Only
D
!!$$!#E$
E$!)#)+<$
!*!$)$)!$)$!$!!#!!
)$!)$
%#(88('+@#$***!#)*
*!#+
@!!!$!$#$!#)!
)$!!!%&$+(8D'+2$!#!
!)*$))$#$.$
$)*##)+F!
)&$@F))0%(887'*$!!$
$*!!$#)!)
*+!!#*$)!$!#$#
!!$*##)$$*
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!*!!))$$!!$!$
!!!)!!#!*+!)!!)
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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

From Michotte Until Today: Why the Dichotomous Classification of Modal and Amodal Completions Is Inadequate:

TL;DR: It is argued that the dichotomous distinction between modal and amodal completions is problematic in phenomenological, empirical, logical, and theoretical terms and proposed alternative criteria allowing for a more differentiated classification scheme for completion phenomena.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Perceptual Illusion of Empty Space Can Create a Perceptual Illusion of Levitation

TL;DR: A recent analysis of magic tricks suggests the existence of a perceptual illusion where the space hidden behind an occluding object is experienced as empty in a strangely compelling way as mentioned in this paper, and this illusion has been investigated in a number of experiments.
Journal ArticleDOI

“Pick a Card, Any Card”: Learning to Deceive and Conceal – with Care

TL;DR: In this article, the author describes the experiences of a beginner learning a craft in entertainment magic and explores the possibilities of that accomplishment by re-imagining magic as a practice of care.
Journal ArticleDOI

The illusion of absence: how a common feature of magic shows can explain a class of road accidents

TL;DR: It is suggested that this novel illusion can make situations involving blind spots in a road user's field of view even more dangerous than one would expect based on the lack of visibility by itself.
Journal ArticleDOI

A psychologically based taxonomy of Magicians' forcing Techniques: How magicians influence our choices, and how to use this to study psychological mechanisms.

TL;DR: A psychologically-based taxonomy of forcing techniques is developed with two goals in mind: to help uncover the different psychological mechanisms that underlie forcing techniques and to facilitate knowledge transfer between magicians and psychologists.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

Recognition-by-Components: A Theory of Human Image Understanding.

TL;DR: Recognition-by-components (RBC) provides a principled account of the heretofore undecided relation between the classic principles of perceptual organization and pattern recognition.
Book

Principles of gestalt psychology

K. Koffka
TL;DR: Routledge is now reissuing this prestigious series of 204 volumes originally published between 1910 and 1965, including works by key figures such as C.G. Jung, Sigmund Freud, Jean Piaget, Otto Rank, James Hillman, Erich Fromm, Karen Horney and Susan Isaacs as discussed by the authors.
Journal ArticleDOI

To See or not to See: The Need for Attention to Perceive Changes in Scenes

TL;DR: The authors showed that when brief blank fields are placed between alternating displays of an original and a modified scene, a striking failure of perception is induced and identification of changes becomes extremely difficult, even when changes are large and made repeatedly.
Journal ArticleDOI

Change blindness: past, present, and future.

TL;DR: The legitimate and the erroneous inferences that have been drawn from change blindness research are discussed, and a set of requirements to help separate them are offered.
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