Magic Tony's Grand Delusions

Friday Magic Showcase: Farrell Dillon

2011-07-01T11:23:00.000-07:00

In April, I had the pleasure of performing alongside a group of Los Angeles magicians at the "Magic & the Brain" event held at LA's Skirball Cultural Center. One of the delightful magicians I was introduced to was Farrell Dillon, a funny and supremely talented performer. According to his website:

Farrell is a rare honors graduate of the Chavez Studio of Magic, the most prestigious magic school in the world. Through this course Farrell was taught the methods and techniques of the world's master magicians. Farrell has a unique style that creates a perfect blend of magic, comedy, skill and illusion.

This week, thanks to iTricks.com, I came across a video created for Sunkist where Farrell employs magic and juggling to spread the "good word" of Sunkist mandarin oranges. I wish all commercial productions were this entertaining!

Neuromagic 2011

2011-05-13T15:51:00.003-07:00

Earlier this month, I had the pleasure of participating in the first ever conference on the interface of magic and neuroscience, Neuromagic 2011, on the secluded Spanish island of San Simón. San Simón was the treasure trove that funded Captain Nemo’s adventures in Jules Verne’s classic fiction tale, 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea. The island has a dark history. Once home to the Templar Knights, pirates, a political prison, quarantined sanitarium, and concentration camp, the beautiful island has now been recast, after almost a decade of renovations by the government of the Galician autonomy of Spain (Xunta Galacia), to serve as a center for philosophy, art, culture, and science. And now, magic.

The list of attendees was a "who's who" in the worlds of magic and the neuroscience and psychology of deception and illusion. Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, authors of the recent book Sleights of Mind, organized the event and spearheaded the difficult task of generating a common language to facilitate communication between the two represented fields. For my part, I expanded on some arguments recently presented in a paper in the journal Perception, wherein I highlighted a set of low-level visual processes which seem to provide the foundations on which many magical illusions are built. (I previously blogged about one of these phenomena here.)

Additional scientists included Drs Peter Tse of Dartmouth College, Petter Johansson of University College London, Lars Hall of the University of Lund, Paul Zak of Claremont Graduate University, and Luis Martinez Otero of the Alicante Institute of Neuroscience. The magician attendees included James Randi, DJ Grothe (JREF president), Luis Piedrahita, Kiko Pastur, Max Maven, Eric Mead, Jamy Ian Swiss, and Miguel Angel Gea.

The talks and workshops jump-started discussions about how emotions interact with attention and awareness, how we are misdirected by performers, how magicians create the feeling of mystery and awe, and much more. Humor, logic and logical fallacies, empathy, faked moves, decision making, the nature of belief, and many other facets of human cognition are brought into play by magicians and mentalists, using techniques distilled from normal human behavior, so that they rarely fail to succeed. Fully, 13 formal collaborative projects were launched among the participants as a direct result of the gathering, to more completely study magic in the brain.

Here is a short video (much of which is in Spanish) that came out of the event, including many beautiful images of the island. Enjoy!

Magical Expertise & the Kinematics of Deception

2011-03-22T15:36:00.002-07:00

In 1896, Joseph Jastrow, founder of the renowned psychology department at the University of Wisconsin, invited two of the most illustrious figures in the history of magic into his laboratory: Alexander Herrmann (also known as "Herrmann the Great") and Harry Kellar. The two were unlikely collaborators. At the time, Herrmann was the world's best-known magician, and Kellar was arguably his greatest competitor. Their "paper wars" were infamous. If both were performing in the same town, they made a point of posting their own advertisements over those of their competitor. This resulted in layers upon layers of posters, as each tried to out-do the other.

Jastrow solicited the help of these magic icons because he was interested in examining the effect of magical expertise on perception and attention. It was reasoned that these men, who were masters in the manipulation of attention and perception, may have developed more highly-sensitive perceptual faculties by virtue of their expertise. To this end, Jastrow led Herrmann and Kellar through a battery of different tests of tactile sensitivity, motor fluency, and visual perception. Although the magicians evinced substantial individual differences on most of these tasks (with Herrmann demonstrating a flippant , arrogant attitude in his performance, which led to low accuracy and slow reaction time in many instances), Jastrow was forced to conclude that, in general, the conjurers' faculties did not differ from those of the average participant.

Recently, a new study has been released by Cristina Cavina-Pratesi, Gustav Kuhn, and colleagues (2011) taking an approach similar to Jastrow's. Magicians regularly produce actions that are meant to simulate other actions. For example, they may pretend to transfer a coin from one hand to the other while really retaining it in the original hand. Pantomimed actions of this type have been studied before (although not with magicians), and they consistently produce kinematic patterns that vary substantially from those of purposeful actions. Cavina-Pratesi and colleagues were interested to know whether magicians, who have honed their pantomime skills, show these same biases in pantomimed behavior.

To test this, they first asked a group of magicians and non-magicians to grasp and move a block of wood from one location to another or to pantomime the same action. While participants completed the task, researchers tracked the kinematics of each type of grasp. Importantly, just before the grasp (or

Figure 1: From Cavina-Pratesi
et al. (2011)

pantomimed grasp) took place, experimenters blocked the participants' vision using a pair of liquid crystal shutter glasses. This emulated a common strategy employed by magicians, who often shift their attention away from a piece of sleight of hand in the hope that viewers will also attend elsewhere. Thus, participants were grasping or pantomiming based on a recent memory of the visual object rather than actual visual feedback from the object.

The researchers found that magicians did not demonstrate many of the standard kinematic biases usually observed during pantomimed grasping. Specifically, people usually have a reduced grip aperture when pantomiming a grasp. Otherwise stated, they don't open their fingers as wide when initiating a pantomimed grasp as they do when initiating an actual grasp. This bias was not apparent in the kinematics of the magicians, while it did appear for the non-magicians. Thus, magicians' pantomimed grasps are quite similar to their actual grasps. This was even the case when they were asked to grasp the block of wood in an unusual way (see Figure 1d).

In a follow-up experiment, Cavina-Pratesi et al. showed that these biases do emerge when magicians are asked to simply imagine the object in the absence of visual stimulation. From this, they concluded that magicians do not have improved visualization abilities compared to non-magicians. Instead, they are more adept in the use of environmental information (the distal image of the wood block) to guide their pantomimed action. In their words, "[Magicians] have learnt that the best way to fake an action is by performing it 'for real'" (p. 4).

Further support for this position has been provided by Natter and Phillips (2008) who showed that experienced magicians are attuned to and able to simulate subtle muscular and temporal shifts that coincide with the transfer of a coin from one hand to the other (as simulated in the classic French Drop sleight), while novice magicians are relatively insensitive to these characteristics of physical manipulation. Indeed, the best way to learn sleight of hand is to first increase one's awareness of the kinematics involved in the action being simulated.

References:

Cavina-Pratesi, C., Kuhn, G., Ietswaart, M., & Milner, A. D. (2011). The magic grasp: Motor expertise in deception. PLoS ONE, 6, e16568. doi: 10.1371/journal.pone.0016568. [link]

Jastrow, J. (1896). Psychological notes upon sleight-of-hand experts. Science, 3, 685-689.

Natter, M., & Phillips, F. (2008). The french drop sleight: Deceptive biological motion [Abstract]. Journal of Vision, 8, 1052. doi:10.1167/8.6.1052. [link]

"Sleights of Mind"

2011-02-02T18:01:00.007-07:00

You should probably buy this book. Why? Two reasons:

It's the first book dedicated to discussing the neuroscience of magic.
I'm featured prominently within its pages.

While Amazon.com is processing your order, I encourage you to watch this segment from the PBS Horizon program.

Do newborns imitate?

2011-02-02T16:00:00.007-07:00

Recently, a group of scientists including prominent mirror neuron researcher, Vittorio Gallese, published an article purporting to demonstrate social interaction between identical twin fetuses in the uterus (at a time in their development before they have even the most basic reflexes). While their conclusions were highly dubious, their study is not actually the focus of this blog entry. Instead, I want to address something that they bring up in the fourth sentence of their introductory remarks. Castiello et al. (2010) state that, "even hours after birth, newborns have been found to show preparedness for social interaction that, among other things, is expressed in their imitation of facial gestures" (p. 1).

It seems that nearly every researcher in the fields of embodiment and comparative psychology has accepted this idea, that neonates are wired to imitate, wholeheartedly, yet the evidence cited to support this position is surprisingly scant. Namely, researchers cite the iconic work of Meltzoff and Moore (1977) published in Science, which suggested that newborns are capable of imitating facial gestures. Specifically, it was suggested that infants were capable of imitating both tongue protrusions (TPs) and mouth opening (MO). You may have seen Figure 1 from Meltzoff and Moore (1977) in many textbooks.

In their primer on infant cognition, Moll and Tomasello (2010) interpreted this finding as evidence that, “infants had an innate understanding that other persons are ‘like me,’ which constitutes a critical basis for deeper intersubjective understanding later in life” (p. R873). Is this interpretation warranted, though?

A good amount of research has been carried out since Meltzoff and Moore’s initial publication, and much of it indicates that Meltzoff was way off base, yet this research has captured almost no attention. It’s been all but ignored by mirror neuron researchers who cite the Meltzoff work as if it is without question. I contend that Meltzoff’s work has been thoroughly debunked, and I’d like to briefly lay out some of the evidence here.

The first question is, can Meltzoff’s findings be relicated? The answer: not exactly. Anisfeld (1996) reviewed the literature on infant imitation, reporting that MO imitation (and other frequently investigated varieties of imitation) is rare while TP imitation is robust. See a problem yet? Infants only imitate one behavior? Awfully strange, considering that imitation of this one behavior serves no discernible evolutionary purpose. That leads to the second question: Why might an infant appear to be imitating this behavior?

The answer to this question is actually quite interesting. It’s important to note that TP imitation is relatively short-lived. Infants quit imitating tongue protrusions around the age of 2 or 3 months (Jacobson, 1979). Oddly enough, this decline happens to coincide with the development of reaching behaviors. Thus, up until this development, infants primarily interact with the world via their mouths. Might it be the case that TPs are simply the result of stimulation? Indeed, in a beautiful set of experiments, Jones (1996) showed that a blinking light (a completely non-social stimulus) elicited tongue protrusions (at least for infants who showed interest in the blinking light) and that infants were more attracted to faces with a protruding tongue than faces with an open mouth. This points to tongue protrusion as a result of stimulation, not imitation. Finally, she showed that the development of reaching behavior coincided with the decline of TP responses to interesting objects within the infants’ reach.

Thus, imitation of TPs is simply coincidental, and it is unlikely to be imitation, at all. Are we wired to imitate or do we learn to imitate? Given the first option’s foundation on grains of sand, I lean toward the second option.

References:

Anisfeld, M. (1996). Only tongue protrusion modeling is matched by neonates. Developmental Review, 16, 149-161. [Link to Abstract]

Castiello, U., Becchio, C., Zoia, S., Nelini, C., Sartori, L., Blason, L., et al. (2010). Wired to be social: The ontogeny of human interaction. PLoS One, 5, e13199. [Link to Open Access Entry]

Jacobson, S. W. (1979). Matching behavior in the young infant. Child Development, 50, 425-430. [Link to PDF]

Jones, S. S. (1996). Imitation or exploration? Young infants' matching of adults' oral gestures. Child Development, 67, 1952-1969. [PDF]

Meltzoff, A. N., & Moore, M. K. (1977). Imitation of facial and manual gestures by human neonates. Science, 198, 75-78. [PDF]

Moll, H., & Tomasello, M. (2010). Infant cognition. Current Biology, 20, R872-R875. [Link to Abstract]

Let the Blogging Resume

2009-09-28T18:38:00.002-07:00

I've neglected this blog for too long. I must come to my senses on this. Unfortunately, this semester is kicking me in the head, so there's no way for me to keep up with the blogging schedule I was able to establish over the summer. I'm planning to resume blogging, but with a reduced schedule...Possibly one or two posts per week. Thank you for your kind attention. I hope that you continue to drop by.

More Time Off

2009-08-27T09:29:00.002-07:00

The new school year has me completely swamped, which means that I've neglected this blog terribly. For the next week, I'll be attending the conference of the European Society for Cognitive Psychology at Jagiellonian University in Krakow, Poland, and will likely be unable to attend to this blog in any meaningful fashion. To keep you occupied, here is a collection of videos from the 2007 Magic of Consciousness Symposium organized by the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness, featuring a number of well-known magicians opining on the psychological basis of what they do.

James Randi on Assumptions:

Apollo Robbins:

Teller:

More from James Randi:

Johnny Thompson:

Mac King:

Friday Magic Showcase: Blood

2009-08-21T10:37:00.003-07:00

This Friday Magic Showcase is devoted to magicians who aren't afraid to push the envelope, who willingly present their audiences with discomforting, disturbing situations. If you're not comfortable with a little gore, then this may not be the blog entry for you. I'll begin with a relatively benign, dark effect performed by the Scottish magic team, Barry & Stuart. Here is their "Suicide in C-Sharp."

Turning away from the light-hearted presentation of gory magic, we must not ignore the most notable purveyor of "horror magic," the Peruvian magician, Richiardi. He took audience discomfort to a new level by rarely providing any closure on the gruesome acts he performed. The audience was often left wondering about the reality of what they had just witnessed. Here is his contribution to the sawing illusion, with commentary by Teller.

Another great Richiardi video can be found here, in a clip from his TV show, "Chamber of Horrors." Finally, Penn & Teller rarely shy away from gore in their magic. Here is their homage to Richiardi.

Friday Magic Showcase: Christopher Hart

2009-08-14T09:42:00.002-07:00

The video does a good job of introducing this week's Friday Magic Showcase, Christopher Hart. My only questions is, which came first?...this act or his film career?

Lennart Green Presentation @ "TED Talks"

2009-08-12T14:55:00.003-07:00

This video has been sitting in my inbox for months, now. I just took the time to watch it yesterday. Lennart Green, one of the world's foremost card magicians, was invited to perform at the well-known "TED Talks." In this presentation, which is mostly performance-based, Lennert relates his magic to evolutionary short-cuts. It's definitely worth watching and is a great example of how magicians take advantage of our inability to recognize or understand randomness. I'll expound on this perceptual limitation in a blog entry later this week.

Mirror Neurons & Sign Language

2009-08-12T10:25:00.007-07:00

The discovery in the early 90s of mirror neurons in macaques, neurons that fired both when the monkeys were performing a specific goal-directed hand action and when they viewed another monkey performing the same action, spurred a great deal of research and theorizing in the psychology and neuroscience communities. Unfortunately, many of the theories derived from the discovery of mirror neurons stepped away from the original empirical findings of Di Pellegrino et al. (1992), presuming at the outset (sans evidence) that mirror neurons in humans have evolved dramatically from those found in monkeys. That said, theorists have suggested (among other things) that mirror neurons are the source of human empathy, the evolutionary precursor to language (via action understanding), and that a mirror neuron deficiency is the cause of autism. These theories are all well and good...except that they all assume mirror neurons have behavioral consequences beyond those seen in monkeys, and they assume that humans have large circuits of mirror neurons (which have never been found in the human brain). Hickok (2009) provides one of the most well-constructed critiques of the limitations and exaggerations inherent to theories of action understanding through mirror neuron activity.

Germane to my field of study is the proposition that mirror neurons form the foundation for language (and serve an important role in the understanding of speech, providing the neural basis for the motor theory of speech perception, previously discussed here). It has been suggested that the earliest forms of communication were likely to be gestural (Arbib, 2002; Corballis, 2003; Fogassi & Ferrari, 2007). Arbib (2002) outlined seven theoretical stages in the evolution of linguistic capabilities. The first four stages involve adaptations in the ability to grasp objects with the hand and understand the grasping behaviors of other animals. Each of these evolutionary steps entails a further development of the Broca’s area homolog, including the development of mirror systems, yielding the ability to interpret the actions of others through simulation. As Arbib explained, “The evolution of mirror neurons extended ‘knowing’ from the individual to the social,” (pp. 14). Further imitative abilities allowed for a rudimentary manual communication system. As Corballis (2003) pointed out, modern wild chimpanzees exhibit a variety of manual gestures. He posited that they are one evolutionary component away from the ability to communicate effectively through mime: bipedalism. Indeed, it is likely that the earliest bipedal hominids communicated through pantomime, and this communication was accompanied by facial expressions and simple vocalizations that provided emotional valance (Fogassi & Ferrari, 2007).

A paper in press at Brain & Language (which I've made available here) examines one of the core premises of the Arbib theory of language evolution. If mirror neurons are at the heart of communication (allowing language recognition through simulation), and if language evolved from gesture, then a language that is overtly gestural, such as sign language, should be largely reliant on mirror neurons and mirror networks in the brain. Knapp and Corina (in press) evaluated three predictions derived from the mirror neuron theory of language, primarily through an examination of research in sign language:

"Damage to the human mirror neuron system should non-selectively disrupt both sign language and non-linguistic action processing."
"Within the domain of sign language, a given mirror neuron locus should mediate both perception and production."
"The action-based tuning curves of individual mirror neurons should support the highly circumscribed set of motions that form the ‘‘vocabulary of action” for signed languages."

A thorough examination of the literature revealed that only one of these predictions was supported by current evidence. The second prediction receives a modicum of support from research employing fMRI. Unfortunately, fMRI is essentially useless when it comes to validating mirror neuron theories, as it lacks the resolution necessary to pinpoint activity at the level of the individual neuron. Even though an individual voxel may demonstrate activation during both perception and performance, one cannot assume that this pattern is indicative of mirror neurons. It could simply be the case that neurons active during perception happen to be near neurons active during performance.

As I see it, this paper is something of a nail-in-the-coffin for the mirror neuron theory of language understanding. A language that should be most in-touch with the theoretical origin of spoken language, sign language, does not appear to be moderated by mirror neurons or mirror networks in the brain. Do we need to continue this fiasco?

References:

Arbib, M. (2002). The mirror system, imitation, and the evolution of language. In C. Nhaniv & K. Dautenhahn (Eds.), Imitation in Animals and Artifacts. The MIT Press.

Corballis, M. C. (2003). From mouth to hand: Gesture, speech, and the evolution of right-handedness. Behavioral and Brain Sciences, 26, 199-260.

Di Pellegrino, G., Fadiga, L., Fogassi, L., Gallese, V., & Rizzolatti, G. (1992). Understanding motor events: A neurophysiological study. Experimental Brain Research, 91, 176-180.

Fogassi, L. & Ferrari, P. F. (2007). Mirror neurons and the evolution of embodied language. Current Directions in Psychological Science, 16, 136-141.

Hickok, G. (2009). Eight problems for the mirror neuron theory of action understanding in monkeys and humans. Journal of Cognitive Neuroscience, 21, 1229-1243. (link)

Knapp, H. P. & Corina, D. P. (in press). A human mirror neuron system for language: Perspectives from signed languages of the deaf. Brain & Language. (link)

Taking the week off.

2009-08-04T14:46:00.002-07:00

My master's thesis defense is scheduled for next Monday. That said, I'm taking this week off from blogging, returning next week with renewed vigor. Thank you for your kind attention.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Soma

2009-07-31T13:43:00.004-07:00

Well, the results are in for FISM. Congratulations to Shawn Farquhar for winning the Grand Prix in close-up! Han Seol-Hui tied for first place in the "Manipulation" category, and Julius Frack won in the "Stage Illusion" category. For the list of other award-winners, head on over to Tim Ellis' blog entry here. The Grand Prix award for stage magic went to a magician I haven't featured here: Soma. So, in honor of his accomplishment, the final "Stay-At-Home FISM 2009" entry is dedicated to him. Soma represented Hungary in the "General Magic" category. From his website:

Throughout the past decade Soma has developed a unique way of entertainment, which took him all around the world. His original phone-act, acclaimed by his peers as "magic as unique, and as original as it gets", appeared in gala-shows and magic conventions all around Europe, the United States and Asia. He has won many prizes in many countries.

The main objective of Soma's magic is to deliver an experience never seen before. A professional way of entertainment: That is the purest expression of what he does.

Here is the act with which Soma won the FISM 2009 Grand Prix for Stage Magic:

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Xavier Tapias

2009-07-30T14:52:00.003-07:00

Xavier Tapias, of Spain, does recycling magic. His goal is to create magical events using ordinary objects, and to this end he has won a number of awards, including the "Silver Magic Wand" award at the Monte Carlo Magic Stars Festival in Monaco. In 1993, Tapias became the CEO of a toy company which produces automated toys for display windows. As a result of this venture, his magic act has become quite high-tech, employing many animatronics, and the company has shifted its focus away from toys, primarily producing electronic magical effects for magicians. Tapias is competing in the "General Magic" category. Here is his competition act, "The Robot."

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Shawn Farquhar

2009-07-30T11:48:00.003-07:00

From Canada, competing for an award in the "Card Magic" category is Shawn Farquhar. I've been a fan of Farquhar for some time, now. He has the rare quality of being able to connect with an entire audience on an emotional level from the moment he walks out on stage. He's insanely likable and talented. From his website:

Shawn Farquhar has been entertaining audiences around the globe for over two decades. His magic has been seen on Television shows like the X-Files and Highlander, in Motion Pictures like Spooky House and the Fly II, for corporate clients like IBM and Konica, and on the most luxurious cruise vessels such as Norwegian Star and Radiance of the Seas.

The Canadian Association of Magicians awarded Shawn the MAGICIAN OF THE YEAR, the Pacific Coast Association of Magicians awarded him the GRAND PRIX D'HONNEUR and the International Brotherhood of Magicians awarded him both STAGE MAGICIAN and SLEIGHT OF HAND MAGICIAN OF THE YEAR, making him the ONLY magician in history to win BOTH world championships!

Here's a portion of the act Shawn competed with :

Update: Word on the street is that Shawn has made it to the finals of the Grand Prix contest.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Han Seol-Hui

2009-07-29T14:09:00.004-07:00

I've tried to delay gratification on this find for a while, now. I can't wait any longer...I must share this act with you. Han Seol-Hui is representing Korea in the "Manipulation" category (stage sleight of hand). I think he's a real contender for the top prize. I've seen CD manipulators before, but he is head and shoulders above the rest. If anything, he's a little too fast. You miss a lot of what he's doing. Still, an impressive demonstration. I hope you enjoy Han Seol-Hui.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Yves Doumergue

2009-07-29T09:41:00.002-07:00

In the second day of the close-up competitions, French magician Yves Doumergue drew a lot of attention. Competing in the "Parlour Magic" category, Doumergue's act involved a traditional plot with a not-so-traditional ending. As reported by Craig Mitchell:

3 volunteers are brought onstage and requested to selected a dynamite looking firecracker. 4 are real and one is a dud ( he lights one to prove it - literally shaking the CNCC convention centre to its core with an enormous bang ) The volunteers each take one - the last spectator inadvertently providing the magician with incorrect information as to what number he has selected. With the magician now reaching for one of the remaining sticks ( using incorrect information as to what sticks remain ) - he places it in his mouth and begins to light it. Some members of the audience are horrified - not knowing whether to intervene to prevent a ghastly accident. A scream is heard and the magician's face is covered in blood ... he had planned it all and knew exactly which one to choose.

I can't help but be reminded of this often-fumbled magic trick (not for the squeamish), except that, in Doumergue's case, the failure was staged. No video is available of Doumergue's fire-cracker trick, but here's his well-known version of the torn and restored card.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Julius Frack

2009-07-28T13:22:00.002-07:00

Julius Frack is a veteran FISM competitor from Germany, usually competing with an act he calls, "The Mad Tailor." From Magic-Gala.com:

In this performance Julius Frack is manically dancing around his attic in an eccentric tail-coat, magically designing an exquisite dress for his mannequin. His thimbles move to the rhythm of the music and his scissors mysteriously float shaping his vision. With this act he won several awards in international contests and a high reputation in the world of magic. In 2005 the young magic pro’s new full-evening show “Imagi©nations” started on a tour around theatres in Germany.

This year, he is competing in the "stage illusion" category, leading me to believe that he will probably be presenting a different act. His unique suspension illusion (seen below) could do him well in this category!

Stay-at-Home FISM 2009: Jeremy Pei

2009-07-28T10:03:00.002-07:00

Jeremy Pei is representing Singapore in the "parlour magic" category at FISM. Yesterday, Craig Mitchell reported that Pei's competition act included a high-energy combination of rope magic, the classic cups and balls effect (seen multiple times on this blog), and a miniature linking rings routine. According to Pei's website:

Since 1997, Jeremy has made several milestones for himself. He won several local and international awards for his performances. Jeremy is the First and Only Magician in Singapore’s history to win the Singapore Association of Magicians “Magician of the Year” Award for 3 consecutive years! He made appearances on local and foreign television broadcasts, newspapers and magazines. He was also invited as special guest speaker, lecturer and consultant in Singapore and overseas.

Here is a portion of his act featuring a re-thinking of the "Professor's Nightmare" rope trick.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Politics

2009-07-28T09:30:00.005-07:00

source: the Taipei Times

Uh oh. It looks as if things have taken a turn for the worst at the FISM competitions in Beijing. From Tim Ellis at MagicUnlimited:

There was one incident that was so unexpected it left the room literally in shock.
After a contestant did an act featuring a travel theme where he gave a list of the countries he wanted to visit (which included Taiwan) a Chinese registrant leapt up from the audience, raced back stage and literally dragged the contestant back on demanding that he apologise because “Taiwan is not a country!!!”

Some of the other Chinese in the audience (including some of the cameramen) cheered, but the rest of the room sat with jaws gaping... and in one moment the beautiful veil of happiness FISM Beijing had woven over the last few days was ripped aside.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Kiko Pastur

2009-07-27T13:30:00.000-07:00

The wonderful thing about FISM is that it provides a venue for lesser-known magicians from outside the US to gain worldwide recognition. This is the case with one of Spain's competitors in the close-up category. Competing for a prize in card magic is Kiko Pastur. I don't speak Spanish, so I have had a difficult time finding any information on Kiko other than video clips of his act. From his website, I've been able to glean that he's collaborating with a jazz composer to develop a show marrying illusion and jazz. In the close-up setting, there is indeed a strong relationship between magic and jazz, with the trajectory of a magical effect being easily modified in real time to fit the mood of the audience (and the performer). Enjoy Kiko Pastur.

Stay-At-Home FISM 2009: Timo Marc

2009-07-27T09:30:00.001-07:00

Today is the first day of competition at FISM, beginning early in the morning with the first round of stage magic competitors. Magicians compete for awards in a number of different categories, including "general magic," "manipulation" (which is essentially stage sleight-of-hand), and "stage illusion." Competing in the "general magic" category, representing Germany, is Timo Marc. Since 2005, Marc has been winning competitions all over the world with his "21st Century Magic." Notably, he received the prestigious Siegfried & Roy SARMOTI prize at the 2008 World Magic Seminar in Las Vegas, in recognition of his creative, high-tech style of magic.

Friday Magic Showcase: Norbert Ferré

2009-07-24T11:05:00.003-07:00

In order to get you excited for next week's "Stay-At-Home FISM 2009," this week's Friday Magic Showcase is Norbert Ferré, winner of the 2006 FISM Grand Prix award for stage magic. This will give you just a taste of what to expect from the FISM competitors I profile in the next few days.

"The Noam Chomsky Show"

2009-07-24T09:55:00.001-07:00

FISM 2009 Profiles

2009-07-23T20:33:00.004-07:00

The competitions of the Federation Internationale des Societes Magiques begin in Beijing on Sunday. This is the most high-profile magic competition in the world, with past winners including people like Johnny Ace Palmer, Daryl, and of course Lance Burton. In lieu of shelling out the cash for a trip to China, next week I'll be profiling some of this year's competitors here, including video of the acts they're likely to be competing with. I hope you'll join me for my stay-at-home FISM 2009.

Update: Tim Ellis, a FISM jury member, is doing a FISM play-by-play over at his blog, Magic Unlimited. I've added his blog to the sidebar.

Friday Magic Showcase: Jay Mattioli

2009-07-17T13:56:00.002-07:00

One of my peers from Tannen's Magic Camp is doing pretty well for himself on this season of "America's Got Talent." Jay Mattioli has won awards in both the International Brotherhood of Magicians annual competition and the Society of American Magicians annual competition with an act that's technology themed. You'll see some elements of it in this video montage from his stage show.

Phineas Gage Photograph Discovered

2009-07-16T11:25:00.005-07:00

from http://brightbytes.com/phineasgage/

Photograph collectors in Maryland have discovered what appears to be the only known photograph of Phineas Gage. Gage is a legend in neuroscience and psychology. Here's why (from the Boston Daily Courier, September 20th, 1848):

Horrible Accident. Phineas P. Gage, a foreman on the Rutland Railroad at Cavendish, Vt., was preparing for a blast on Wednesday last, when the powder exploded, carrying through his head an iron instrument, an inch and a fourth in circumference, and three feet and eight inches in length. The iron entered on the side of his face, shattering the upper jaw, and passing back of the left eye, and out the top of his head. Singularly enough, he was alive at two o'clock the next afternoon, in full possession of his reason, and free from pain (Macmillan, 1986, p. 77).

In many ways, the story of Phineas Gage has grown into a myth, and the legend surrounding Gage's condition probably began with the newspaper article above. There is still a pervasive view that Gage recovered fully from his injuries in a very short period of time. While it was amazing that Gage survived having a tamping iron travel through his brain, by no means was he ever the same person following the accident. For more information on Phineas Gage, I suggest you track down two great articles penned by Malcolm Macmillan at the University of Melbourne:

Macmillan, M. B. (1986). A wonderful journey through skull and brains: The travels of Mr. Gage's tamping iron. Brain and Cognition, 5, 67-107.
Macmillan, M. (2008). Phineas Gage - Unravelling the myth. The Psychologist, 21, 828-831. (link)

h|t BPS Research Digest

Follow-Up: The Marmoset Thatcher Illusion?!?

2009-07-14T10:13:00.002-07:00

You knew this was going to happen.

Click the image to see its upright version. It's too hideous for me to post on the mainpage.

The Marmoset Thatcher Illusion?!?

2009-07-13T10:26:00.003-07:00

An experiment in press in Current Biology reports the not-so-surprising finding that monkeys also fall for the well-known Margaret Thatcher effect (Thompson, 1980). For those of you unfamiliar with the illusion, here's the gist. Have a look at this image of Margaret Thatcher.

Although something is obviously not quite right about the image, it doesn't look terribly out of the ordinary. It's difficult to pinpoint the abnormality until the image is rotated right-side up.

Right-side up, the image is grotesque. You can now readily notice that although the relative configuration of the eyes and mouth has been maintained, each element has been flipped upside-down. The illusion suggests that we are relatively insensitive to the specific features of a face during recognition (otherwise, the upside-down face would look abnormal). Instead, we rely on the overall configuration of said features. Here's an even more compelling demonstration of the effect using the faces of celebrities (and a little bit of creepy music):

Adachi, Chou, and Hampton (2009) created "Thatcherized" images of rhesus monkey faces.

The researchers presented their monkey subjects with un-Thatcherized images of normal and rotated monkey faces over and over, habituating the monkeys to the images. They then presented a series of Thatcherized images, reasoning that if monkeys perceived abnormalities in the images, they should become dishabituated, spending more time gazing at the new photographs. Just as predicted, only the upright Thatcherized images captured extra attention, replicating the Thatcher effect seen in humans, and suggesting that monkeys use face recognition strategies similar to those used by humans.

References:

Adachi, I., Chou, D. P., & Hampton, R. R. (2009). Thatcher effect in monkeys demonstrates conservation of face perception across primates. Current Biology, 19, 1-4.

Thompson, P. (1980). Margaret Thatcher: A new illusion. Perception, 9, 483-484. (link)

Friday Magic Showcase: Doc Eason

2009-07-10T09:31:00.004-07:00

From allamericanspeakers.com:

In 1977, at age 30, William H. "Doc" Eason took a 2 week motorcycle vacation from his home in California and journeyed to Snowmass, Colorado to visit some old fraternity brothers. These friends co-owned the Tower Restaurant with John Denver. As fate would have it, one of the first people he met in Snowmass was legendary bar magician, Bob Sheets. This chance meeting changed the course of Doc’s life forever. The two week vacation turned into an incredible run of over 27 years. He never returned to California and to make a long story very short, Doc had Bob’s old job as the magic bartender and featured entertainer at John Denver’s World Famous Tower Comedy Magic Bar and Restaurant until it closed its doors on April 10, 2004.

Below is one of my favorite Doc Eason bits. This was the only video I could find of the entire routine. Although the video is less-than-perfect, it's the story that makes the trick.

Follow-Up: TV Magic

2009-07-08T13:25:00.004-07:00

As promised, here is the segment KTVK Phoenix Channel 3 aired on the psychology/neuroscience of magic.

Friday Magic Showcase: Banachek

2009-07-03T09:07:00.002-07:00

Banachek gained fame for his role in James Randi's "Project Alpha." He is now one of the most well-respected, knowledgeable mentalists in the field. Banachek will be presenting a lecture for magicians and mentalists in Phoenix on July 19th. Feel free to contact me for more information.

TV Magic

2009-06-30T13:27:00.005-07:00

Today, I was interviewed by Phoenix's KTVK Channel 3 for a segment they're preparing on psychology/neuroscience and magic, specifically focusing on the work that Steve Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde are doing at the Barrow Neurological Institute. I've done magic on TV a few times before, and each time I'm struck by how limiting the camera is. After capturing some of the first film footage of a performing magician, psychologist Alfred Binet noted that the magic was not nearly as effective on film. Why might this be?

Magic is an inherently social enterprise, with each trick being a shared experience of something wondrous between the magician and the spectators. The most effective elements of misdirection build upon social norms. For example, if you want to divert attention away from your hands at an integral moment, there's no better way than asking someone a question or simply saying their name. Social norms dictate that we are to look a person in the eyes while answering a question. Not only is this person's attention diverted, but the rest of the audience typically shifts their attention to the person answering the question. The camera does not allow for this kind of social interaction between magician and viewer.

The other weapon in the magician's misdirection arsenal is joint attention. The magician's focus of attention suggests to the audience where their attention should be placed. You've probably had the experience of being compelled to follow the gaze of another person. In many instances it's exceedingly difficult to resist. Tomasello, Hare, Lehmann, and Call (2007) argued that we evolved the whites of our eyes for the purpose of facilitating joint attention. In fact, our closest relatives in the animal world, the African great apes, do not have enlarged sclera, and consequently aren't as sensitive to others' shifts in attention as even young human infants are. In most cases, television drastically weakens the effect of joint attention, nullifying its ability to misdirect.

In their 2005 Perception paper, Kuhn and Land presented the results of an experiment employing the following magic trick, performed live.

When performed live, only 20% of participants noticed the magician drop the cigarette in his lap on the first viewing. Kuhn, Tatler, Findlay, and Cole (2008) repeated the experiment, this time with participants watching a video of the magic trick. In this instance, the percentage of participants who noticed the drop increased to nearly 57%. In theory, the only difference between the experiments was the ability for the magician to interact and make eye contact with the spectator.

Unfortunately, much of my magic employs misdirection of this kind. I have a difficult time thinking of any piece from my repertoire that doesn't contain an element of social misdirection. Despite these limitations, I was able to pull together a few magical effects from my act that highlight some of the psychological tendencies that magicians prey upon. Once I know when the segment is going to air, I'll post more information here.

References:

Kuhn, G. & Tatler, B. W. (2005). Magic and fixation: Now you don't see it, now you do. Perception, 34, 1155-1161.

Kuhn, G., Tatler, B. W., Findlay, J. M., & Cole, G. G. (2008). Misdirection in magic: Implications for the relationship between eye gaze and attention. Visual Cognition, 16, 391-405.

Tomasello, M., Hare, B., Lehmann, H., & Call, J. (2007). Reliance on head versus eyes in the gaze following of great apes and human infants: The cooperative eye hypothesis. Journal of Human Evolution, 52, 314-320.

Friday Magic Showcase: Cyril Takayama

2009-06-26T09:43:00.002-07:00

Although he was born and raised in Hollywood, Cyril Takayama is most well-known in Japan where he has performed on a number of street magic television programs. You may also recognize him from the short-lived "T.H.E.M" program that aired on MTV. I think Cyril's popularity stems from his clean, in-your-face style. There is very little subterfuge in his magic...He gets right to the point. I hope you enjoy this video. It broke my brain.

A Casual Evening of Strolling Magic

2009-06-24T11:06:00.003-07:00

Those of you living in the Phoenix Metropolitan Area should head over to Sign of the Whale in Tempe this evening (Wednesday, June 24th) for their Ladies' Night. My new friend Ken will be guest bartending, and I'll be performing a little casual strolling magic. You can find more information on the Facebook page I created for the event, or the MeetUp.com page. It should be a good time!

Buying Time

2009-06-23T13:53:00.004-07:00

It's been a busy couple of weeks, and I've neglected this blog terribly. I have a couple of posts in the works, but also have bigger fish to fry, this week. In lieu of anything meaningful or new, I'm going to buy myself some more time by posting this video from my recent performance at the Phoenix Clean Stand-Up Comedy Showcase. Let's see if I can improvise some way in which what you're about to see is related to psychology...ummm...I got it:

Most magic tricks rely on the fact that people have built up a lifetime of experiences, drastically biasing the way they interact with the world. Magicians want you to make assumptions about what you're watching, as it distracts you from the true method. Once you have realized that your assumptions are false, it's too late for you to go back. Watch how I lead you down a garden path and then pull the rug out from under you. There. How was that?

Friday Magic Showcase: Juan Mayoral

2009-06-19T09:23:00.002-07:00

Among stage magicians, none has been more influential on my stage magic philosophy than Juan Mayoral. Mayoral was a performer at my very first magic convention, and his act was far different from the other acts I saw. He employed technology in a way that others were not. His magic could be described as "artful," a term rarely used to describe magic. He was theatrical and moving. I was immediately infatuated with his style. Years later, Juan continues to create new and amazing magical effects using the latest technologies. I hope you enjoy Juan Mayoral.

Follow-Up: Sweden's Got Talent

2009-06-12T15:52:00.003-07:00

Magician Charlie Caper has won "Talang 2009" (aka "Sweden's Got Talent").

Friday Magic Showcase: Rudy Coby

2009-06-12T09:54:00.002-07:00

If you live near Minneapolis, MN, you should head on over to the Galaxy Theater at Valleyfair and check out their newest attraction: Rudy Coby. Known for his character, Labman, Coby has a style that's hard to describe. He's part cartoon character, part mad scientist. His show is original in every way. Coby had two well-received television specials in the mid-90's. For the past six year, he's been working with Marilyn Manson, designing illusions for Manson's touring show. Here's some classic Rudy Coby:

Magic & Technology Workshop

2009-06-10T13:14:00.004-07:00

The most recent issue of Nature contains a short article about a workshop that happened last month in Lima, Peru, hosted by Medialab Prado. "Interactivos? Lima '09" brought together engineers and artists with the hope of generating new illusions based on the most modern technologies, and the finished products did not disappoint. The installations produced during the meeting included a magic wand that could change the shape of a person's shadow, a box that transformed a person's arm into the leg of a lion, and a telekinetic spoon that was moved by a hidden theremin (fast-forward to the 3:50 mark in the following video to see a demo of the spoon in action).

This conference was appropriate, as magicians have always been among the first to learn about and exploit new technologies. Famously, Robert-Houdin, the oft-labeled "father of modern magic," used electromagnetism even before scientists had developed applications for it. He used it in an illusion called the "Light and Heavy Chest." From magicexhibit.org:

He invited a spectator on stage to lift the small wooden box he said he kept to store his money. His volunteer always did this easily. Then the magician commanded the box to stay where it was, so it could not be stolen. No matter how hard the volunteer tried after that, he couldn't move it.

Hidden inside the wooden chest was a metal plate, and an electromagnet sat under the stage. When his assistant turned on the magnet, the strong attraction made it impossible to move the chest. Robert-Houdin wrote in his autobiography that at this time "the phenomena of electromagnetism were wholly unknown to the general public. I took very good care not to enlighten my audience as to this marvel of science."

It's even rumored that Robert-Houdin used this effect to prevent a war in Algeria.

Sweden's Got Talent

2009-06-10T12:15:00.001-07:00

Although I've been unable to find much more information about this, iTricks is reporting that there are two magic acts in the finale of "Sweden's Got Talent." Who knew that magic was so big in Sweden?! I think I'll just go ahead and take credit for the popularity of magic in Sweden. When I was in there in 2001, I performed for the American ambassador to Sweden...I'm sure it caught on just after my visit. Anyway, the first act in the finals is Brynolf & Ljung. Here they are performing a pretty innovative set:

The other act is a man named Charlie Caper. Here he is doing some equally creative (and arguably, more original) magic:

I think I'm rooting for the second guy...His climax is a change-blindness trick (the bowtie vanishes long before you realize that it's gone)!

Follow-Up: Psychic Tweets

2009-06-10T09:10:00.002-07:00

Over at NewScientist.com, Richard Wiseman has published the results of his recent Twitter experiment on remote viewing (previously blogged about here). Wiseman traveled to a number of different secret locations. Once there, he directed Twitter participants to "tweet" about any feelings they were receiving about the secret location. Later, he sent them a link to a website that presented participants with images of five different places. They had to choose the location they believed Wiseman to be at. In addition, Wiseman probed participants about their belief in the paranormal and psychic ability.

Not surprisingly, the group (of nearly 1000) failed miserably. Wiseman treated the most frequently selected location as the group's choice in each of four trials. The group failed to choose the correct location on every trial. In addition, those who proclaimed belief in psychic ability performed no better on the task than those who professed no belief. Granted, this is far from being an ideal experimental design, as anyone with genuine psychic ability would get washed away by all the guessing within the group. What this study does accomplish is a demonstration of a possible (and promising) use for social networking sites by the scientific community.

Some folks are getting all bent out of shape about this experiment. I suggest you head over to the comments section on NewScientist.com and enjoy the circus.

Friday Magic Showcase: Al Flosso (1895-1976)

2009-06-05T09:29:00.003-07:00

Dubbed "The Coney Island Fakir" by Milton Berle, Al Flosso perfected the side-show barker character and was the first magician to appear on the "Ed Sullivan Show". For nearly 40 years, Flosso owned and operated the famed Martinka & Co. magic shop in New York, previously owned by Houdini. Flosso's first major business choice was to stop cleaning the magic shop, as he didn't want to disturb Houdini's dust. His son, Jackie Flosso, took over the business after his father's death.

Results: Japanese Words Quiz

2009-06-03T10:49:00.005-07:00

A few weeks ago, I invited you to take part in an online survey for which I provided very little background. Your job was to determine which of two English words was the appropriate translation of a Japanese word. Since most people in the Western world have very little knowledge of the Japanese language (aside from "konnichiwa" and "sayonara") you were probably just guessing. But, is there anything systematic about people's guessing in an experiment like this?

What you didn't know while taking the quiz was that the appropriate translation was not always provided as one of the answers. Sometimes the Japanese word was paired with its actual translation and an unrelated item. Other times, it was paired with the opposite of its actual translation and an unrelated item (so, the Japanese word for "bright" was paired with "dark"). A recent experiment in press at the journal Cognition used a similar design. Nygaard, Cook, and Namy (in press) taught English-speaking participants the translations of a series of Japanese words that were presented auditorily, but unbeknownst to the participants, they were either learning the direct translation of the word, it's antonym, or an unrelated translation.

Nygaard et al. found that participants learned the items more efficiently (evidenced by accuracy and response time in a recognition task) if they were learning the true meaning or its antonym than if they were learning an unrelated translation.

from Nygaard et al. (in press)

Languages are thought to be abstract and arbitrary, with no systematicity between word sounds and word meanings (aside from onomatopoetic words). The authors argue that this experiment suggests a different story, that there is some sort of underlying sound to meaning correspondence that is systematic across language systems, as none of the participants in this study had even a rudimentary knowledge of Japanese. The antonyms were thought to benefit learning since they were from the same semantic category as the paired Japanese item.

I find this conclusion highly suspect. The authors point out a possible confound that I think is at the heart of the effect being seen here. During the learning phase of the experiment, the Japanese tokens were presented auditorily, paired with a written English translation on the computer screen. The spoken Japanese items were, of course, provided by a native Japanese speaker, meaning that the speaker knew the actual meanings of the words they were saying. Spoken language is a much richer source of information than the printed word. From a speaker's voice, we can ascertain things like their gender and age as well as gain information that can aid in the understanding of the words they're saying. In fact, the authors cite research demonstrating that listeners can intuit word meanings based only on voice inflections (or prosody).

In the "Japanese Words Quiz," I wanted to determine whether people could guess the meanings of the Japanese words without any sort of auditory input. Granted, this is a much different experiment from Nygaard et al. and I didn't have a fully-counterbalanced design, but if there is any systematic phonetic (or orthographic) to semantic relationship that readers can pick up on across languages, then it would be quite possible that they could guess the meanings above chance levels.

I had planned to carry out a full statistical analysis of this data, but looking at the raw numbers tells me that further analysis is not necessary. The results were almost perfectly at chance, with an overall accuracy of 51%. Accuracy on matched trials (where the actual translation was one of the possible choices) was 52%, and accuracy on antonym trials was 50% exactly. That's not a promising outcome.

I'm thinking of following up on this experiment with a formal replication using spoken word tokens generated by someone who doesn't speak Japanese but who has training in Japanese pronunciation...Someone like a vocal performance major. Thus, they would be unequipped to provide prosody that would be informative to the true meaning of the word. Could be fun! Stay tuned.

References:

Nygaard, L. C., Cook, A. E., & Namy, L. L. (in press). Sound to meaning correspondences facilitate word learning. Cognition. (link)

Magic Tony @ the Clean Comedy Showcase

2009-06-02T10:58:00.003-07:00

What are you planning to do this weekend? That's right...nothing. You have no plans (other than just sitting at home hoping that I'll post a weekend blog entry, which just doesn't happen, folks). So, let me give you a plan for the weekend.

Saturday evening, I'll be opening for Robert Mac at Phoenix's "Clean Stand-Up Comedy Showcase." There. You've got all the makins' for a wonderful evening: magic, comedy, and ... comedy. Best of all, it'll only cost you $5. Here's all the information you need in order to plan the night of your life:

What: Clean Stand-Up Comedy Showcase
When: Saturday, June 6th, 7:00PM
Where: Mountain View Rec. Center, 2927 East Campbell Ave., Phoenix, AZ (map)
Why: Seriously? You're asking why?

If you want to see all of this information repeated, please feel free to visit my facebook page for the event here. Here's a video of Robert Mac's stand-up to whet your whistle.

Psychic Tweets

2009-06-01T07:55:00.005-07:00

Today is your chance to become a part of history, folks. Psychologist Richard Wiseman (along with New Scientist magazine) is carrying out the first experiment examining psychic ability via Twitter. From Richard's blog:

The experiment will examine the possible existence of ‘remote viewing’ – the alleged ability to psychically identify a distant location.
So, how is the experiment going to work?

Well, at 3pm (UK time) each day, I will travel to a randomly selected location. Once there, I will send a Tweet, asking everyone to Tweet about their thoughts concerning the nature of the location. Thirty minutes later, I will send another Tweet linking to a website that will allow everyone to view photographs of five locations (the actual location and four decoys), think about the thoughts and images that came to them in the thirty minutes before, and vote on which of the five they believe to be the actual target location.

If the majority of people select the correct target then the trial will count as a hit, otherwise it will count as a miss. There will be trials at 3pm on Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday and Friday this week. Three or more hits in four trials will be seen as supporting the existence of extrasensory perception.

In addition to these formal trials, there will be an informal trial (to test the procedure) today at 3pm.

As well as being the first ever scientific experiment on Twitter, I think this is going to be the largest ever test of Remote Viewing, so I am excited about the project.

So, head on over to Richard's Twitter stream at https://twitter.com/RichardWiseman to take part in the fun!

Friday Magic Showcase: Mahka Tendo

2009-05-29T09:30:00.001-07:00

More bad news for the magic community. The inimitable Mahka Tendo passed away this week of throat cancer at the age of 49. From Magic Unlimited with Ellis & Webster:

Mahka Tendo is best known for his ground-breaking work with jumbo card productions which earned him a Silver Medal in Manipulation at FISM 1985. More recently he's brought out a selection of products including canes, with SEO Magic, and he was presenting a weekly magic spot on NHKTV in Japan.

Motor Theory: A Bit of a Stretch?

2009-05-28T09:50:00.007-07:00

The June issue of Scientific American contains an interesting review of a recent experiment providing support for Liberman and Mattingly's (1985) motor theory of speech perception. Liberman and Mattingly posited that spoken language is not just perceived through a process of auditory deconstruction. Instead, we are perceiving the motor "gestures" that were used to produce the utterance. The implication is that every time we hear speech, we recognize it by simulating the motor activity of the speaker. The oft-cited McGurk effect (MacDonald & McGurk, 1978) is a clear demonstration that speech perception is a multi-modal process. Watch this brief video to experience the McGurk effect for yourself.

The study outlined in the Scientific American article examined the motor contributions to speech perception in a different way. If we are constantly simulating oral gestures when listening to speech, then manipulating our own oral motor activity during speech processing should influence perception. Ito, Tiede, and Ostry (2009) presented people with an ambiguous word (somewhere in between "head" and "had") while a machine, pictured below, stretched the participants' mouths in one of three directions.

From Ito, Tiede, and Ostry (2009)

Two of the stretching directions corresponded to the way the face changes during the pronunciation of "head" and "had." The third was unrelated. As the motor theory would predict, the direction of stretching biased participants toward hearing the word that matched the facial movement, even if the token was more similar to the opposing word. The unrelated stretching condition had no discernible effect on perception. So, there's plenty of evidence that supports a motor component to speech recognition, but, as yet, no one has come up with an experimental design that can unequivocally refute motor theory (although methods in brain imagining are beginning to come close). It seems that it's largely unfalsifiable, which makes it a difficult theory to accept wholeheartedly.

P.S. If you liked the McGurk effect, you should check out this version of it combined with the Margaret Thatcher illusion.

References:

Ito, T., Tiede, M., & Ostry, D. J. (2009). Somatosensory function in speech perception. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 106, 1245-1248. (link)

Liberman, A. M. & Mattingly, I. G. (1985). The motor theory of speech perception revised. Cognition, 21, 1-36. (link)

MacDonald, J. & McGurk, H. (1978). Visual influences on speech perception processes. Perception & Psychophysics, 24, 253-257.

Penn Says: A Fatal Bullet Catch

2009-05-27T12:51:00.008-07:00

In this recent installment of the "Penn Says" vlog, Penn shares an interesting story told to him by a spectator at his Las Vegas show about the famed victim of the bullet catch, Chung Ling Soo.

From Crackle: A Fatal Bullet Catch

For more information on the history of the bullet catch, I encourage you to read Jim Steinmeyer's treatise on Chung Ling Soo, The Glorious Deception.

Friday Magic Showcase: Lance Burton

2009-05-22T10:11:00.002-07:00

Lance Burton is currently taking some time off from his wonderful show at the Monte Carlo Hotel in Las Vegas to nurse a broken foot. Let's hope he heals quickly, because his is one of the best shows on the strip. While Lance is healing, please enjoy this video of his award-winning act.

The Japanese Words Quiz

2009-05-19T10:05:00.003-07:00

Please take a moment to complete this brief (probably invalid) survey. It may lead to an entertaining blog entry later! Thanks!

The Japanese Words Quiz

Bad Times for Magic

2009-05-18T13:55:00.002-07:00

On Coincidental Thinking

2009-05-18T09:22:00.007-07:00

In my blog entry regarding "The Fallacy of Personal Validation," I hit on the topic of probability estimation. People are exceptionally bad at accounting for population base rates when making decisions and are wholly incapable of recognizing randomness when they see it. In the example of an astrological reading, people underestimate the prevalence of certain personality traits in the population, thus personalizing what is in reality a quite generic personality profile. A new study just published in the journal Applied Cognitive Psychology by Paul Rogers and colleagues suggests that this gross inability to consider probabilities may be the factor that differentiates a believer in the paranormal from a nonbeliever.

Rogers, Davis, and Fisk (2009) examined individual differences in susceptibility to the conjunction fallacy, wherein people judge a series of random events as more likely to co-occur than to occur individually. Here's a concrete example. Rogers et al. presented people with the following situation:

Billy has a long lost friend who he has not seen in years. They were good friends in school but drifted apart when they went away to different colleges. Billy comes home from work one evening and sits down to eat his dinner.

They then had participants rate the probability (chance in 100) of three statements:

a. "Billy thinks about his long lost friend."
b. "Billy's long lost friend unexpectedly phones him."
c. "Billy thinks about his long lost friend and suddenly his long lost friend unexpectedly phones him."

The conjunction fallacy occurs when the third item (the conjunction) is rated as more probable than either event individually (the constituents). Statistically, the conjunction should never be more probable than each constituent. Interestingly, paranormal believers (as measured by the Australian Sheep-Goat Scale) were significantly more likely than non-believers to give the conjunction a higher probability rating. Although participants who had more experience in math, statistics, and psychology made fewer conjunction fallacy errors, the effect of paranormal belief was still present when math ability was held constant.

As Cohen (1960) stated, "Nothing is so alien to the human mind as the idea of randomness."

References:

Cohen, J. (1960). Chance, skill, and luck: The psychology of guessing and gambling. Baltimore, MD: Penguin Books.

Rogers, P., Davis, T., & Fisk, J. (2009). Paranormal belief and susceptibility to the conjunction fallacy. Applied Cognitive Psychology, 23, 524-542. (link)

Friday Magic Showcase: Penn & Teller Blast Off

2009-05-15T12:50:00.002-07:00

I realize that this blog is a bit Penn & Teller heavy, but good magic is good magic. Here's some classic Penn & Teller to brighten up your Friday (the Muppets are an added bonus!).

Best Visual Illusion of the Year

2009-05-14T13:48:00.003-07:00

The Vision Sciences Society has announced the winner of their annual Visual Illusion of the Year award. This year's top entry demonstrates why baseball players perceive a curveball to "break" when it enters their peripheral vision (as it nears the plate). From the illusion designer's explanation:

The spinning of the curveball creates both a physical effect (“the curve”) and a perceptual puzzle. The curve arises because the ball’s rotation creates an imbalance of forces on different sides of the ball, which leads to a substantial deflection in the path of the ball. The perceptual puzzle arises because the deflection of the ball should appear gradual, but from the point of view of the batter standing near home plate, the flight of the ball often appears to undergo a dramatic and nearly discontinuous shift in position (this sudden shift is referred to as the curveball’s “break”).

As I can't post any of the illusions themselves on this blog, here's a related video of 10 classic optical illusions in 2 minutes.

Friday Magic Showcase: Marco Tempest

2009-05-08T10:20:00.002-07:00

No one has adapted magic to the age of the internet more effectively than Marco Tempest. Realizing that most magic tricks lose credibility on tv or the internet (where even kids can generate digital special effects), Marco has developed methods for establishing the absence of digital editing. For example, in a long-running series of YouTube videos, Marco performs incredible, original magic using only his camera phone. Here's my favorite installment from the series.

The Brain Orchestra

2009-05-04T12:57:00.002-07:00

The Brain Orchestra, designed and implemented by researchers in the Synthetic, Perceptive, Emotive and Cognitive Systems group (SPECS) at the University Pompeu Fabra in Barcelona, takes as its input a series of physiological responses to visual stimuli, including EEG measures, heart rate, and skin conductance. Its output is something that could be described as musical (assuming your definition of "music" is relatively fuzzy).

From BBC News:

The performers launch sounds or affect their frequencies and modulations based on two well-characterised effects seen in EEGs: the steady-state visually evoked potential (SSVEP), and the so-called P300 signal.
Two of the performers were given a task to watch a screen in front of them, with flashing rows and columns of letters, and told to look for a particular letter. When expectation is fulfilled, 300 thousandths of a second later, a signal known as the P300 appears in the EEG.

In the Multimodal Brain Orchestra, the P300 signal is registered - with a dot demarcating it on the EEG trace projected to the audience, so that they can see the effect of the performer's thought - in turn launching a sound or recorded instrument.

Two more performers were given boxes with four lights flashing at different frequencies. The SSVEP is a brain signal that comes about when visual stimulus in the retina at a given frequency causes the brain to synchronize, so that frequency appears in the EEG.

Given a cue from the conductor, the performers switch their attention from one flashing frequency to another. One of them affects the volume of a given sound - known to influence the level of arousal in the circumplex model - and the other affects a certain modulation of that sound, which is known to influence the valence, how positive or negative the arousal is emotionally.

Electrical Stimulation of the Face

2009-05-04T10:16:00.004-07:00

One of my favorite bloggers, Ze Frank, just posted this video of four men having different muscle groups in their faces stimulated in time with a horrible piece of electronica music.

Watching this, I couldn't help but be reminded of the pioneering research carried out by French neurologist Guillaume Duchenne in mid-19th Century. Duchenne was interested (among other things) in the underlying physical mechanisms responsible for facial expressions. To this end, he recruited a patient with facial paralysis (pictured below with Duchenne on the right). By applying electrical stimulation to different locations on the face, he could activate a variety of muscle groups, leading to the production of some rather grotesque facial expressions.

Most notably, Duchenne is responsible for recognizing that a true smile recruits not just muscle groups in the mouth, but also those around the eyes. This is the most sure-fire way to discriminate a false smile from a true one: someone producing a fake smile doesn't show wrinkling around the eyes. Thanks to Duchenne's research, genuine smiles are sometimes referred to as "Duchenne smiles."

References:

Parent, A. (2005). Vignettes in neurology: Duchenne de Boulogne (1806-1875). Parkinsonism and Related Disorders, 11, 411-412.

Danny Gans

2009-05-01T11:47:00.004-07:00

From Eonline.com:

The Man of Many Voices has gone quiet.

Sin City performer extraordinaire Danny Gans—relatively unknown outside of Las Vegas, but a megastar on the Strip—died in his sleep early this morning at the age of 52. His cause of death was not immediately known.
While Gans began his career as a pro baseball player, eventually nabbing a bit part in Bull Durham, he has been a Vegas mainstay since 1996 and, befitting his stature, had the honor of possessing the largest freestanding marquee in the world.

Friday Magic Showcase: Kevin James

2009-05-01T11:08:00.002-07:00

Kevin James has been a staple in the magic community for many years, offering a multitude of creative takes on old standards as well as brand new magical concepts of his own. Some of his inventions have been used by magicians like Doug Henning, Mark Wilson, and David Copperfield. He recently gained notoriety through his appearances on the reality show "America's Got Talent." Here's his campy version of the sawing in half illusion.

Wired Magazine: Magic & the Brain

2009-04-29T14:01:00.003-07:00

The most recent issue of Wired magazine contains a story about Teller's collaboration with neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde (previously mentioned here) on the recent Nature Neuroscience Reviews article entitled "Attention and Awareness in Stage Magic." The article also contains a full deconstruction of a Penn & Teller classic, "Looks Simple," wherein a series of normal-looking behaviors involved with lighting and smoking a cigarette are revealed to be anything but normal. It's a perfect demonstration of how so much of our perception is driven by automatic, implicit assumptions:

"House" of Cards

2009-04-29T11:44:00.002-07:00

The folks over at iTricks.com posted this fun video of Hugh Laurie and Stephen Fry performing a magic trick during a talk show interview. Hugh knew that House does magic?! Ha!...puns.

On Gestalt "Good Continuation" in Magic

2009-04-27T14:34:00.015-07:00

We live in a world with depth, and consequently, we learn at an early age that obscured objects don't disappear...They're just out of our line of sight. They may still be visible for someone who has a different viewing angle. Partially-obscured objects pose a similar problem. Since we've learned about depth through experience, we know that the cow pictured below isn't in two pieces. His body continues behind the post. In fact, beyond simply knowing this, our brain actively fills in what we cannot see.

This filling-in process demonstrates some relatively-lawful consistencies that were first observed by psychologists in the Gestalt movement (famous for their mantra that the whole is greater than the sum of its parts). The most notable principle formulated by the Gestaltists, as far as magicians are concerned, is the Gestalt grouping principle of good continuation. The simplest way to explain good continuation is through the following graphic:

Given an obscured grouping of sticks, not only do we implicitly assume that the sticks continue behind the tree (rather than there being four sticks), but we perceive the sticks to continue in an established direction behind the tree. We effectively fill in the trajectory of the sticks. Removing the tree demonstrates that our implicit assumptions and filled-in perceptions may be flawed, as there is an alternative (although highly improbable) potential grouping, namely two curved sticks.

Magicians love it when an audience makes assumptions, and automatic, implicit assumptions are the best kind of assumptions for magicians to work with. If an audience does not question their filled-in perceptions, it's quite simple for a magician to operate without their covert manipulations being detected. I would argue that the Gestalt principle of good continuation is the most often exploited perceptual tendency in magic. Take the most well-known of all stage illusions, cutting a woman in half. It would not be an effective illusion if audience's didn't fill in the space between the assistant's head poking out of one end of the box and her feet poking out the other. Often times, magicians will facilitate this filling in process by painting a representation of the assistant's body on the outside of the box. In actuality, the woman's body is much like the sticks pictured above. The illusion works because your filled-in perception of the location of her body does not jive with the actual orientation of her body. This is just one of many instances of good continuation in magic. Here's a collage picturing a number of other well known effects that employ similar principles.

Now that you feel you have an intuitive sense of one of the most pervasive methods in magic, I want you to watch this version of the classic sawing a woman in half illusion developed by the Pendragon's and performed here by "The Twins". It just might break your brain.

Update (11/01/2010): I recently published a paper on this topic (entitled "The Exploitation of Gestalt Principles by Magicians") at the journal Perception. You can find more info on the paper on my website at http://www.public.asu.edu/~abarnhar/Magic.html#Gestalt

WPA Blogging/Tweeting

2009-04-20T11:12:00.004-07:00

My lab (I say "my" as if I run it) will be traveling to Portland, Oregon this week to attend the annual conference of the Western Psychological Association. It's a conference that isn't exactly cognition-heavy, but three of us will be presenting our research in a session on information processing (see page 62 of the program here). If I attend any interesting talks or see any interesting posters, I'll either blog about them here or tweet about them here.

I'm speaking on motor activity in the hand during lexical access. Sure...it's an obscure topic. The talk might be lame, but I'm certainly proud of my PowerPoint slides. Here's a flavor of what you'll be missing.

If you're really interested in motor activity during reading, you can read a little about my research on my website, here. Any suggestions on what we should do while in Portland? We're definitely going on a Portland Underground Tour.

Update: I've posted video of my presentation on my academic webpage here: http://www.public.asu.edu/~abarnhar/Handwriting.html

Friday Magic Showcase: Tom Mullica

2009-04-17T16:20:00.002-07:00

This is the act that made Tom Mullica famous, honed over many years of performing at his own magic bar, "The Tom-foolery." Now, his time is spent performing a wonderful Red Skelton tribute show all over the country. Visit www.tommullica.com for more information.

Phantom Third Limb?!?

2009-04-14T09:14:00.005-07:00

After suffering a stroke, a 64-year-old Swiss woman is reporting the presence of a "pale, milky-white and translucent third arm." According to a news article at swissinfo.ch, this is only the ninth known case of a "supernumerary phantom limb."

The upshot is that the woman can use the apparitional extremity to relieve very real itches on the cheek. It cannot penetrate solid objects. She does not always perceive the arm but "retrieves" it when needed, doctors told the Swiss news agency.

Swissinfo.ch: Doctors confirm woman's imaginary third arm

art from http://davidshillinglaw.bigcartel.com

Justin Kredible @ ASU

2009-04-13T18:44:00.002-07:00

On Wednesday, April 15th, ASU is hosting a performance by Justin Kredible. I remember Justin from when he was just a wee whipper-snapper. I happened to be just a wee whipper-snapper at the time, myself. He's seen a lot of success in recent years, appearing on a number of TV shows, including multiple appearances on the Rachael Ray Show. Below is a clip from one of Justin's performances at the Magic Castle. He's a talented, entertaining magician. I hope that you'll come out to see him if you live in the area. It's free...you have no excuse not to come. Here's the info:

What: Justin Kredible Show
Where: ASU, Hayden Lawn
When: April 15th, 8:00pm

Science News: "Blinded By Magic"

2009-04-11T13:41:00.005-07:00

The cover story of the most recent edition of Science News is a discussion of how neuroscientists (and psychologists) are increasingly turning to magic as a means to understand the processes underlying perception, attention, and even consciousness. Researchers Susana Martinez-Conde and Stephen Macknik from Phoenix's Barrow Neurological Institute (who have penned a number of great review articles on the topic of magic and neuroscience) were interviewed for the article, as was magician and psychologist Gustav Kuhn who was previously cited in my talk, "The Eyes Have It." It's an entertaining read...and open-access to boot!

Science News: Specialis Revelio!

hat tip to Mike Hout

Friday Magic Showcase: Tony Chapek

2009-04-10T10:29:00.002-07:00

From The Gwinnett Citizen:

“I started thinking of ways to combine slight of hand with video,” Chapek said of the act. “So I began doing tricks with video and started passing coins through the TV screen.” Chapek was a regular at the Atlanta Magician’s Club, and one day he showed his act to the club. They went wild. Buoyed by his peers support, Chapek sent a demo of his act to the television show America’s Funniest Home Videos. The ABC Network liked the clip so much that it flew Chapek to Hollywood to appear on the show with the host Bob Saget. Chapek was on a roll. In 1991, one year after appearing on national television, Chapek attended the IBM, not the networking giant but the International Brotherhood of Magicians. At the Baltimore event Chapek was one of 25-magicians presenting their act. From that number 6-finalist were picked to showcase their act. Finally, one person was selected as having the best original act. Chapek was the last man standing.

"The Fallacy of Personal Validation"

2009-04-08T09:46:00.008-07:00

What do pseudo-psychics and the Myers-Briggs personality inventory have in common? They both take advantage of what Bertram Forer termed "the fallacy of personal validation." That is, when presented with a series of personality traits or characteristics, people tend to overlook the fact that these traits are present in most individuals, and perceive the list to be a high-quality representation of their own personality.

This is the core principle in the practice of "cold reading," the method that psychics use to convince a mark that they are "in tune" with their thoughts or are capable of speaking to their dead relatives. The general strategy is that by rapidly presenting a series of statements, attentional limitations will force the mark to only attend to the elements of the reading that fit with their self perception. Based on feedback from the mark, the psychic can then begin to make more specific guesses in order to personalize the reading.

The Myers-Briggs personality inventory is one of the most prevalent personality tests and has gone through a number of revisions in the course of its development. It was originally designed by Isabel Briggs Myers and her mother as a tool for directing people to the vocation they were best suited for. In 1975, it was taken over by Consulting Psychologists Press, Inc. In its current state, the inventory classifies people into one of 16 possible categories (a combination of levels on four different factors). The resulting personality description sounds much like what you would hear from a psychic (or a horoscope). Here's one description taken from The Skeptic's Dictionary:

Usually have original minds and great drive for their own ideas and purposes. In fields that appeal to them, they have a fine power to organize a job and carry it through with or without help. Skeptical, critical, independent, determined, sometimes stubborn. Must learn to yield less important points in order to win the most important.

As Forer (1949) stated,"The individual lacks the quantitative frame of reference necessary for a critical comparison of the printed description and his own self-reference," thus concluding that the description is a solid representation of his or her personality. Forer tested this tendency by administering a personality test to a group of his introductory psychology students. One week later, he provided them all with what they thought were the resultant personality descriptions. In actuality, each student received an identical personality description with their name at the top of the page, which read as follows:

You have a great need for other people to like and admire you. You have a tendency to be critical of yourself. You have a great deal of unused capacity which you have not turned to your advantage. While you have some personality weaknesses, you are generally able to compensate for them. Your sexual adjustment has presented some problems for you. Disciplined and self-controlled outside, you tend to be worrisome and insecure inside. At times you have serious doubts as to whether you have made the right decision or done the right thing. You prefer a certain amount of change and variety and become dissatisfied when hemmed in by restrictions and limitations. You pride yourself as an independent thinker and do not accept others' statements without satisfactory proof. You have found it unwise to be too frank in revealing yourself to others. At times you are extroverted, affable, sociable, while at other times you are introverted, wary, reserved. Some of your aspirations tend to be pretty unrealistic. Security is one of your major goals in life.

As you can see, this is an exceedingly general description, and most people possess many of these traits (although in differing levels). Forer had his students rate how well the personality description reflected their personalities on a scale from zero to five, with five being "perfect." He found that the students overwhelmingly perceived the description to fit their personalities to a high degree. Only one student gave the description a rating below 4, and the average rating was 4.3. Just as in the case of cold reading, the sheer volume of items in the description forces people to only focus on those items that seem to fit. They completely ignore inaccurate items.

I know what you're saying: "Oh, that could never happen to me. I'm an astute, logical person. I don't understand how those students couldn't see through the charade." Well, just for fun, I posted Forer's personality description on my Facebook page, and asked friends to rate it on how accurately it fit their personalities. Here are the results:

Despite my small n, a large number of my participants rated the description as being quite representative of their personality. The mean was much lower than in Forer's experiment, but remember that these participants did not complete any sort of personality test before receiving their "results." Thus, there was reason to be skeptical. So, next time you are watching a psychic, I hope you'll keep this information in mind. Don't fall into the trap that is the fallacy of personal validation.

References:

Dutton, D. (1988). The cold reading technique. Experientia, 44, 326-332.

Forer, B. R. (1949). The fallacy of personal validation: A classroom study of gullibility. Journal of Abnormal Social Psychology, 44, 118-123.

ASU Origins Symposium

2009-04-03T10:46:00.003-07:00

The ASU Origins Symposium began yesterday with a kick-off panel discussion on issues in science journalism. Interesting talks and symposia will be going on at ASU through Monday, featuring some of the biggest names in science (Hawking, Dawkins, Pinker, Ramachandran, the list goes on). Many of the events are not open to the public (and I couldn't score an invite), but they will all be simulcast on Cox Channel 116 and Quest Choice TV Channel 138. In addition, there will be live webcasts of many of the events found here.

I'm particularly interested in the events happening Sunday. The first panel discussion (starting at 9:30 AM) is on consciousness, complex cognition, and language. Be sure to tune in!

Friday Magic Showcase: Meir Yedid

2009-04-03T08:34:00.001-07:00

Meir Yedid became famous within the magic community for his "finger fantasies," wherein he makes his fingers disappear one at a time. This may be the most ironic story in all of magic. From www.MeirYedid.com:

In 1986, a car accident severed a third of his right hand, the hand used for the routine. After nine micro-surgeries and a year and a half of extensive therapy, Meir continues to amaze audiences with a refined sense of magical dexterity and buoyant resiliency. He again claimed the S.A.M. Close-Up Magic Championship, in 1988, although this time performing his trademark finger routine with his left hand. This made Meir the first person to win the award more than once. He also received a special originality medal for his creative contributions to the art of magic.

I was lucky enough to be in the audience for the taping of this clip years ago at Tannen's Magic Camp.

Never Cheat a Monkey

2009-04-02T19:37:00.002-07:00

And there's truth to it, too! (Hauser, 1992)

via cynical-c.com

Best April Fools Day Prank EVER!

2009-04-01T13:56:00.002-07:00

Wow. I am in awe of this prank. This is an easy way to make your friends think they are psychic. The instructions are contained in this video:

The gimmicked video for the prank is located here: http://www.bbc.co.uk/bbcthree/videohub/esptest.shtml

Have fun!

American Psychologist Special Issue: Darwin & Psychology

2009-04-01T12:56:00.005-07:00

The most recent issue of American Psychologist is devoted to papers discussing Darwin's contributions to psychology. In addition to the obvious connection between Darwin and the burgeoning (although often questionable) field of Evolutionary Psychology, the special issue also addresses the influence that Darwin had on the psychological theories of his cousin, Francis Galton. The journal isn't open-access, but you can view the table of contents here. It should make for some enjoyable reading!

Hitler on Chris Angel

2009-03-30T11:31:00.002-07:00

...via Tim Ellis, via Tom Ogden (one of my old magic camp teachers...sigh).

SkeptiCamp Phoenix Live Blog

2009-03-28T09:30:00.000-07:00

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Friday Magic Showcase: Norm Nielsen

2009-03-27T09:38:00.000-07:00

Norm Nielsen has one of the most recognizable styles in magic. From Paul Daniels and the Story of Magic by John Fisher:

This warm, engaging performer weaves a very special spell of wonder as first a flute disintegrates into silver dust the moment it touches his lips. Coins appear mysteriously at his fingertips, to be dropped melodically upon what resembles a vertical xylophone, down which they tinkle with a distinctive melody of their own, faster and faster until his hands are overflowing. The whole sequence has that Cartier stamp of dazzle and class. Nielsen’s speciality, however, is his floating violin, rightly considered to be one of the most beautiful illusions in magic...Seldom has a magician endowed a supposedly inanimate object with such telling personality.

Randi Debunks Hydrick

2009-03-25T14:16:00.002-07:00

In preparation for my talk at SkeptiCamp, I've been reviewing video of people claiming psychic powers. Here's some vintage footage of James Randi debunking psychokinete, James Hydrick (who's sporting his fancy new Spring ensemble).

The price is wrong, James.

Live-Blogging SkeptiCamp Phoenix

2009-03-25T12:14:00.006-07:00

On Saturday, as reported earlier, I'll be one of the presenters at SkeptiCamp Phoenix. I'm speaking on "Methods of the Pseudo-Psychic." Sure...I'll admit that the title is redundant. All psychics are equally "pseudo." I'll also be live-blogging from the event, so be sure to tune in to http://magictony.blogspot.com on Saturday around 12:30pm to follow my play by play and contribute to the conversation yourself!

Friday Magic Showcase: Topas

2009-03-20T09:00:00.002-07:00

Topas is one of my favorite magicians. He is a two-time FISM award winner and is recognized as one of the world's most creative working magicians. Here is Topas performing the act that won him his first FISM award in the manipulation category. I particularly love the '80s flavor. If you've got some time, an extended version with better sound/video synchronization can be found here.

Mac King's Wildest Dreams...

2009-03-18T11:15:00.003-07:00

Mac King in his cloak of invisibility

One of the highlights of Mac King's act is his "method" for making cards disappear from the hands of a spectator on one side of the stage, reappearing in the hands of someone on the other side of the stage. He simply uses his relatively ineffective "cloak of invisibility," of course! Well, Mac's wildest dreams may be coming true sooner than anticipated. This month, the highly respected journal Nature reported on the work of a group of scientists at the Hong Kong University of Science and Technology who have described a theoretical method for creating a cloak of invisibility. I'm not well-versed in physics, so I can't make much sense of the paper (found here), but the implications of such a tool for magicians are incredible!

Here's a CNN report about the technology:

Update: Come to think of it, magicians have been employing a similar technology for hundreds of years, now. Here's Omar Pasha:

Eye Wiggling Benefits Memory

2009-03-16T14:43:00.004-07:00

In my Ignite Phoenix talk, "The Eyes Have It," I discussed a study by Lyle, Logan, and Roediger (2008) wherein strongly right-handed participants who wiggled their eyes from side to side demonstrated better recall for a memorized word list than those who didn't move their eyes. The authors suggested that lateral eye movements increased hemispheric cross-talk (which is usually lacking in strong right-handers), leading to deeper, richer encoding. Another study has just come out in the journal Brain and Cognition that provides further support for this assertion, this time employing a source monitoring paradigm.

Parker, Buckley, and Dagnall (2009) showed participants a series of pictures accompanied by a narrative. They followed this up by asking them a number of misleading questions about the specifics of the story. Participants were then directed to move their eyes either laterally, vertically, or not at all. The authors found that lateral eye movements led to better memory for the contents of the pictures and narrative. In addition, participants who moved their eyes from side to side were less apt to adopt the misinformation elements into their recollections.

References:

Lyle, K. B., Logan, J. M., & Roediger III, H. L. (2008). Eye movements enhance memory for individuals who are strongly right-handed and harm it for individuals who are not. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 515-520. Link

Parker, A., Buckley, S., & Dagnall, N. (2009). Reduced misinformation effects following saccadic bilateral eye movements. Brain and Cognition, 69, 89-97. Link

The "Progressive" Quiz

2009-03-15T21:26:00.003-07:00

My score seems a little low to me. Try for yourself here.

Friday Magic Showcase: Dai Vernon (1894-1992)

2009-03-13T09:31:00.003-07:00

This week's Friday Magic Showcase features Dai Vernon, "The Professor." Many consider Vernon to be the father of modern close-up magic. He trained many of today's best sleight-of-hand artists during his years of residency at Hollywood's famous Magic Castle and was the subject of a 2005 book, The Magician and the Cardsharp, which detailed his quest to seek out the elusive "center deal." I highly recommend reading it. Here is Dai performing his take on the classic cups and balls illusion.

Body Asymmetry & Paranormal Beliefs

2009-03-11T11:36:00.002-07:00

While planning for my talk at SkeptiCamp later this month, I discovered a recent special issue of the journal Cortex dedicated to studies of paranormal beliefs. One article in the issue that caught my attention looked at the correlation between body and brain asymmetry and belief in the paranormal. Günter Schulter and Ilona Papousek at the University of Graz, in Austria, found that asymmetries between finger lengths of the two hands were associated with greater belief in paranormal phenomena.

I'm always intrigued by these types of findings, but they often lead only to more questions. Many times, authors of this type of work will argue that the bodily asymmetry is suggestive of an underlying brain asymmetry as well (kudos to Schulter and Papousek for staying away from this line of reasoning). This is a problematic argument. Since this study is correlational, there could easily (and likely) be a third variable at play. For example, people whose faces are more symmetrical are perceived to be more beautiful (Rhodes, Proffitt, Grady, & Sumich, 1998). We all know that beautiful people are treated differently in our society, and social rejection seems likely to be correlated with magical thinking, paranormal belief, and religiosity. So, this relationship between physique and belief could have absolutely nothing to do with brain structure at all. One thing we do know, though, is that symmetrical people smell better!

There are many other interesting articles in the special issue. Be sure to check it out here.

References:

Rhodes, G., Proffitt, F., Grady, J. M., & Sumich, A. (1998). Facial symmetry and the perception of beauty. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 5, 659-669. Link

Schulter, G. & Papousek, I. (2008). Believing in paranormal phenomena: Relations to asymmetry of body and brain. Cortex, 44, 1326-1335.

SkeptiCamp Phoenix

2009-03-09T12:10:00.003-07:00

Later this month (on March 28th, to be exact), I'll be taking part in SkeptiCamp Phoenix 2009. SkeptiCamp "focuses on topics of interest to skeptics, including science, critical thinking and skeptical inquiry," and all of the presentations are given by camp attendees. So far, the schedule includes talks on academic freedom and the intelligent design movement, how to be a happy skeptic, and critical thinking for dummies (among others). I'll be giving a talk entitled, "Methods of the Pseudo-Psychic." This promises to be a really interesting and entertaining day. There are still a lot of open seats, so I suggest you sign up! Here's the information:

When: 10:00am Saturday, March 28th, 2009
Where: Arizona State University, Discovery Building Rm. 246 (map)

More info here.
Register here.

Ali Bongo (1929-2009)

2009-03-09T11:00:00.003-07:00

Sad news, today. One of the most knowledgeable and recognizable figures in the magic world, Ali Bongo, has passed away. Aside from the major contributions he made to conjuring, Bongo also played an important role in the debunking of pseudo-psychic Uri Geller. From the Telegraph:

Bongo was the first experienced magician publicly to challenge the Israeli-born showman Uri Geller over his supposed psychic powers. Vowing to "put my money where my mouth is", Bongo made an appearance on the Blue Peter programme aiming to recreate Geller's spoon-bending and mind-reading experiments in front of a studio audience using only conventional magic techniques.
The experiment was a muted success – "He didn't break the fork, he only bent it," complained the metallurgist Alistair Brown – but Bongo emerged from the episode as a likeable figure, self-deprecating and generous with his expertise. He had been taken to Geller's hotel by a Daily Mail journalist the previous day in an attempt to force Geller into "proving" his abilities before an expert. The Israeli psychic ordered him out of the building with the words: "I have no time for magicians! What do they know about my powers?"

R.I.P., Ali.

Friday Magic Showcase: Roy Benson (1914-1977)

2009-03-06T13:49:00.004-07:00

Thanks to the wonder that is youtube, there's a lot of great magic footage to be had. Every Friday, I plan on showcasing video of a different classic magician or illusion, beginning today with Roy Benson. He's my kind of magician...zippered banana and all. Enjoy!

Magic @ the Origins Symposium

2009-03-04T19:04:00.003-07:00

If you live in the Phoenix area, an amazing event is happening at Arizona State University on April 6th. As part of ASU's "origins initiative," a symposium is being held with some of the biggest names in science (you name the field!) in attendance. The culmination is a talk by Stephen Hawking held in Gammage auditorium. Tickets are half price for anyone with an ASU ID and tickets go on sale to the general public on Friday. Hawking's opening act is a magician named Jason Latimer who was a graduate student in optics (among other things) at UC Santa Barbara. He's well-known for his take on the classic cups and balls illusion.

The Eyes Have It

2009-03-04T10:45:00.004-07:00

February 25th saw the third installment of Ignite Phoenix, an event where people from a variety of creative fields gather to give brief talks on the topic of their choosing. This was my second Ignite Phoenix, and they just keep getting better. Presenting at Ignite is challenging because they employ the "lightning talk" format wherein you have 5 minutes to articulate your ideas with 20 powerpoint slides that change automatically every 15 seconds. This time, my talk was entitled, "The Eyes Have It: Eyes as a Window to Cognition." Despite some linguistic flubs at the beginning and a bad camera angle on the magic trick, I was happy with my performance. Below the break you will find some of the references I cited in the talk.

References:

Beatty, J. (1982). Task-evoked pupillary responses, processing load, and the structure of processing resources. Psychological Bulletin, 91, 276-292.

Kuhn, G. & Land, M. F. (2006). There's more to magic than meets the eye. Current Biology, 16, R950-R951.

Lyle, K. B., Logan, J. M., & Roediger III, H. L. (2008). Eye movements enhance memory for individuals who are strongly right-handed and harm it for individuals who are not. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 15, 515-520.

Milgram, S., Bickman, L., & Berkowitz, L. (1969). Note on the drawing power of crowds of different size. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 13, 79-82.

Ricciardelli, P., Bricolo, E., Aglioti, S. M., & Chelazzi, L. (2002). My eyes want to look where your eyes are looking: Exploring the tendency to imitate another individual's gaze. Neuroreport, 13, 2259-2264.

Tomasello, M., Hare, B., Lehmann, H., & Call, J. (2007). Reliance on head versus eyes in the gaze following of great apes and human infants: The cooperative eye hypothesis. Journal of Human Evolution, 52, 314-320.

History: Alfred Binet's "Psychology of Prestidigitation"

2009-03-03T13:12:00.004-07:00

As I alluded to in my first post, we are experiencing a renaissance in the psychological study of magic, but many of the ideas being tossed around today are simply reminiscences of past observations. It may surprise you to learn that one of the earliest researchers in psychology and magic was famed intelligence tester, Alfred Binet. In addition to creating the first intelligence test, Binet is credited with capturing the first moving picture of a magician (with the help of French photographer Georges Demeny). Recently, Richard Wiseman (2005) rediscovered the original footage collected by Binet of magician "Raynaly" vanishing a ball (seen below).

In 1894, Binet wrote a manuscript entitled "Psychology of Prestidigitation" in which he foreshadowed many pieces of current research, including the role of joint attention in magic (which I'll discuss in a subsequent post) and the exploitation of inattentional blindness and perceptual set. He also pointed to a problem that researchers are still having a difficult time tackling: the reduction problem. Binet said:

The illusion of each trick is not merely the result of one single cause, but of many, so insignificant that to perceive them would be quite as difficult as to count with the naked eye the grains of sand on the seashore.

Indeed, the methods of magicians are often multi-modal, disallowing reduction in the lab. If any piece of the method is removed, the illusion fails. Oftentimes, we see this with video footage of magic. Social cues to attention are weakened when magic isn't performed live, so consequently, misdirection often fails on video. Binet recognized this phenomenon in his footage of Raynaly, noting:

We have not for one moment the impression that the exchange has actually been made...If the photographic proof destroys so completely the illusion, it is because it does away with all the adjuncts necessary for the illusion which we have enumerated: The rapidity of the trick, the little discourse given by the artist, the maneuvers which cause a diversion or a diminution of attention, etc.

References:

Binet, A. (1894). Psychology of prestidigitation. Smithsonian Report for 1894 (pp. 555-571). Government Printing Office. Link

Wiseman, R. (2005, July 27). Trick and treat. Daily Telegraph. Link

Welcome!

2009-03-02T14:01:00.008-07:00

Hello, friends. This is the first post to the new "Magic Tony's Grand Delusions" blog. The plan for this blog is currently quite vague. I'm expecting that it will contain links and commentary having to do with anything in the realm of psychology and magic (with the occasional snarky political rant). We're currently experiencing a renaissance in the study of magic from a psychological perspective, so I anticipate there will be lots to talk about.

A little about me: I'm a 3rd year graduate student in cognitive psychology at Arizona State University and a part-time professional magician with 20 years of experience. Although my primary area of research is in the processes underlying handwritten word recognition, I've also lectured on topics having to do with psychology and magic. To whet your whistle, here's a brief "lighting" talk I gave at the Ignite Phoenix event on the application of priming to magic. Enjoy!

References:

Hagmann, P., Cammoun, L., Gigandet, X., Meuli, R., Honey, C. J., Wedeen, V. J., & Sporns, O. (2008). Mapping the structural core of human cerebral cortex. PLoS Biology, 7, e159.

Kay, A. C., Wheeler, S. C., Bargh, J. A., & Ross, L. (2004). Material priming: The influence of mundane physical objects on situational construal and competitive behavioral choice. Organizational Behavior and Human Decision Processes, 95, 83-96.

RATS ad: Subliminal conspiracy? (2000, September 13). BBC News. Retrieved October 20, 2008, from http://news.bbc.co.uk.

Weinberger, J. & Westen, D. (2008). RATS, we should have used Clinton: Subliminal priming in political campaigns. Political Psychology, 29, 631-651.