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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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!$.$!)$)+@)))
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$)*G!H$H++!*
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$#)))#
!*!!))$$!!$!$
!!!)!!#!*+!)!!)
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Citations
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Journal ArticleDOI

Prediction in goal-directed action

TL;DR: This review provides a selective overview of experimental studies on predictive mechanisms in human vision for action and presents classic paradigms and novel approaches investigating mechanisms that underlie the prediction of events guiding eye and hand movements.
Journal ArticleDOI

Task-related gaze control in human crowd navigation

TL;DR: It is concluded that gaze behavior in crowd navigation is task-dependent, and that not every fixation is strictly necessary for navigating crowds, and when explicitly tasked with seeking out potential social affordances, gaze is modulated as a result.
Journal ArticleDOI

Neuroimaging findings on amodal completion: A review

TL;DR: It is suggested that amodal completion is the solution to deal with various types of incomplete retinal information, and highly depends on stimulus complexity and saliency, and therefore also give rise to a variety of observed neural patterns.
References
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Journal ArticleDOI

A framework for using magic to study the mind

TL;DR: A framework outlining how knowledge about magic can be used to help us understand the human mind is proposed, including the possibility of a science centered around the experience of wonder.
Journal ArticleDOI

From images to objects: Global and local completions of self-occluded parts

TL;DR: The results of three experiments show that local and global completion tendencies which were well-established for two-dimensional surfaces appear valid for three-dimensional objects as well and it is shown that structural object aspects play an important role in object completion.
Journal ArticleDOI

Toward a new theory of stereopsis

TL;DR: By linking stereopsis to a generic perceptual attribute, rather than a specific cue, it provides a potentially more unified account of the variation of stereopsis in real scenes and pictures and a basis for understanding why the authors can perceive depth in pictures despite conflicting visual signals.
Journal ArticleDOI

Working Wonders? Investigating insight with magic tricks

TL;DR: Magic tricks provide more detailed information about the differences between insightful and noninsightful problem solving, and the underlying mechanisms that are necessary to have an insight, by introducing magic tricks as problem solving domain.
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