Magic tricks rely on gaps in our perception and endure because the
vulnerabilities of the mind are so predictable.
Credit: Suslik1983/shutterstock
12 comments:
Grace C.
said...
This was an interesting article. I never knew that misdirection and focus can fool the mind's eye. The invisible gorilla was pretty funny, but I didn't understand how that could really fool the minds eye. I think that I would have to be in the audience of the game to see if I could do that. It was kind of cool that a magician could go into the field of psycology. That actually made him a better magician! This was a (pun intended) magical artical.
I thought that this was an amazing article. I've never learned about misdirection and I am quite surprised that some people did not see a gorilla walk straight into the middle of the court! I was intrigued by the tricks that you can play on the mind's eye. It was interesting how he went into psychology and how they might be able to get kids to focus more in class or cure diseases.
I agree with Chris because it is amazing how tricks like these trick the eye. For example when the women assistant puts herself in a box, gets cut in half and then comes back out perfectly unharmed. It's so amazing that the human brain takes longer than expected to adapt to what is happening.
Why i thought it takes a long time to adapt to what is happening is because the human brain has to be surrounded with things being so clear all the time and when there isn't any misunderstandings. Which makes it not understand what's happening.
When it comes to very good magic, I am totally into it. This article really intrigued me! I thought that the whole things was explained extremely well. I always wonder what magicians do to fool the audience. I totally understand now. Many tricks rely on pulling the audience's attention away from the trick and then him or her does something while they aren't looking at the trick. I never knew that a magicians work goes into the field of psychology. I have never heard about misdirection until this article explained it in a complete way. It was also very interesting when the scientists said that if they figured it out, they could actually teach people more about driving and education. Overall, I really liked this article. And yes Gracie, this article was especially magical. (pun intended.)
This article really interested me. I never knew that there was even a way to "saw" someone in half without actually killing them. (I know that may seem stupid, but it's true) I also agree with Chris; I can't believe that some people could not see a man in a gorilla suit walk onto the screen and beat his chest. I also always wondered how magicians could make a coin go from one place to another without the audience seeing. Now I understand how magicians operate.
I thought this was a really fun to read and interesting at the same time. I knew that the eye had something to do with it, but I didn't know it can effect so much. I have always loved illusions and have tried to do them myself a whole bunch of times, but I am not so good at the sleight of hand. I love mind puzzles and I also adored how it can help others. I never really understood how the box trick worked until now. I think the human eye is very gullible which can come to the benefit of magicians. It is interesting how we use logic to explain the unexplained. I usually rely on logic when I watch scary movies or "My True Ghost Story" because it talks about the trick of the eye. One show that really uses logic to explain things is "Decoded" but anyway I learned a ton from this articule and hope to learn more
I think that this was very interesting how we just assume that the whole animal is there, like in the cow example. I never noticed that I did this. The brain actually fits the information that we got from looking at that cow behind the fence and changes it to reality, what we know. The brain basically makes things better for us. I don't understand how only some people can see the coin moving, if our brains fix the images for all humans. If our brains did not make the image into reality and put in the missing aspects of it, like the cow, then magic tricks would be much easier to believe. But people still believe the magic tricks, some not kids, even though the brain does this for us. I don't understand that. This article was very interesting, and I liked reading it.
This article was amazing, but kind of strange. If humans are that evolved, how can we not see a gorilla walking right where are eye is. That is kind of stupid. I've seen plenty of magic, and it all seems real. The article says that a lot of magicians use that method, and that is what can make tricks, like the sawing a person in half thing, look amazing. There are a lot of tricks that look like they are in plain sight. If I ever go to a magic show again, I am definitely going to see the bigger picture. My assumption is that people are focusing on the trick. For example, when they pull a dollar out of a person's ear, people are looking at the person, not at the magician. That whole time the magician could be plotting, but the audience is looking at the person just standing there. This was a very fascinating and educational article.
I think that it is cool how we can actually learn things from magic. I always knew that magic wasn't magic,it was sleight of hand or something, but I never could figure out how they did it. To tell the truth, I still can't. I think that it is interesting how there are specific spots that make us "blind" to what is happening. I also think that maybe the magicians' popularity helps. We know when we see a magic show that something amazing is going to happen, so we hang on to the magician's every move, making it easier to be fooled by a distraction.
This also tells you that humans' minds are very gullible. If you look at the trick where someone throws a coin up and down and then does a fake throw to their other hand, our minds will be inclined to believe that the fake throw is real, and in doing so, they will fall for the trick, and be shocked when the coin appears in the same hand it started in. Once I finish this comment, I am going to try that on my dad.
The invisible gorilla was weird, but I think i understand it. Sometimes when you're so focused on something, you don't hear or see other things around you. When I read, everything disappears, because I am so focused on my book. I also wonder about the blind spots. I wonder, if you were not looking at a blind spot, would you have seen the coin out of your peripheral vision?
Now that article was what I am going to call “long but interesting.” I think magic is one of those things we probably take for granted, since the first thing we all probably think of when we see a magic trick is, “Oh I know that trick, that’s the one where he puts the coin in his hand!” But magic relating to science, it’s almost hard to see how these things connect to each other. What I took from this article was that when we see magic being done, we think it is real only because are brains are fooling us. And like the article said, that we have “blind spots” in our attention, I think we can relate to that, especially when the teacher is talking, because I know at least three people in the class are just singing some Top 40 song and not paying attention to directions the teacher is giving. There are some things, though, I did not understand, like when these scientists were saying that when there was a giant, attention catching gorilla pounding it’s chest in the middle of a basketball game, and nobody noticed, only because they were focused on counting the amount of passes made by the white team, that seems a bit unbelievable. Apparently, our brains can be easily taken off focus or tricked, just by being shown a different object that takes you off focus from the old object you were looking at. Our brains also have a tendency to only expect the new object to be coming from the same place as the old object, which gives magicians an advantage, because if they can distract us with one object, they can do the trick with another. Like when Anthony Barnhart performs his coin trick, he shows an empty cup to the audience distracting them from the fact that he is doing something with the coin. A way to not be so gullible during a magic show is to try to disengage from the story the magician is telling you (that is what Anthony tells us). What I would really like is a demonstration of magic and “blind spots” so I can understand the concept better. I would also like to know if this kind of science works with touch, too, for example: If somebody is giving me a massage but then they stop, somebody taps me on the shoulder and I look away, completely focused on the person I am talking to, even though the masseuse has already begun massaging me, would I notice the massaging? I am very curious. Overall, this article was very surprising, because now I know that magicians can get away with their tricks by fooling my brain and eyes, but next time I see a magic show, I am going to beat the magician’s plan.
12 comments:
This was an interesting article. I never knew that misdirection and focus can fool the mind's eye. The invisible gorilla was pretty funny, but I didn't understand how that could really fool the minds eye. I think that I would have to be in the audience of the game to see if I could do that. It was kind of cool that a magician could go into the field of psycology. That actually made him a better magician! This was a (pun intended) magical artical.
I thought that this was an amazing article. I've never learned about misdirection and I am quite surprised that some people did not see a gorilla walk straight into the middle of the court! I was intrigued by the tricks that you can play on the mind's eye. It was interesting how he went into psychology and how they might be able to get kids to focus more in class or cure diseases.
I agree with Chris because it is amazing how tricks like these trick the eye. For example when the women assistant puts herself in a box, gets cut in half and then comes back out perfectly unharmed. It's so amazing that the human brain takes longer than expected to adapt to what is happening.
Why i thought it takes a long time to adapt to what is happening is because the human brain has to be surrounded with things being so clear all the time and when there isn't any misunderstandings. Which makes it not understand what's happening.
When it comes to very good magic, I am totally into it. This article really intrigued me! I thought that the whole things was explained extremely well. I always wonder what magicians do to fool the audience. I totally understand now. Many tricks rely on pulling the audience's attention away from the trick and then him or her does something while they aren't looking at the trick. I never knew that a magicians work goes into the field of psychology. I have never heard about misdirection until this article explained it in a complete way. It was also very interesting when the scientists said that if they figured it out, they could actually teach people more about driving and education. Overall, I really liked this article. And yes Gracie, this article was especially magical. (pun intended.)
This article really interested me. I never knew that there was even a way to "saw" someone in half without actually killing them. (I know that may seem stupid, but it's true) I also agree with Chris; I can't believe that some people could not see a man in a gorilla suit walk onto the screen and beat his chest. I also always wondered how magicians could make a coin go from one place to another without the audience seeing. Now I understand how magicians operate.
I thought this was a really fun to read and interesting at the same time. I knew that the eye had something to do with it, but I didn't know it can effect so much. I have always loved illusions and have tried to do them myself a whole bunch of times, but I am not so good at the sleight of hand. I love mind puzzles and I also adored how it can help others. I never really understood how the box trick worked until now. I think the human eye is very gullible which can come to the benefit of magicians. It is interesting how we use logic to explain the unexplained. I usually rely on logic when I watch scary movies or "My True Ghost Story" because it talks about the trick of the eye. One show that really uses logic to explain things is "Decoded" but anyway I learned a ton from this articule and hope to learn more
I think that this was very interesting how we just assume that the whole animal is there, like in the cow example. I never noticed that I did this. The brain actually fits the information that we got from looking at that cow behind the fence and changes it to reality, what we know. The brain basically makes things better for us. I don't understand how only some people can see the coin moving, if our brains fix the images for all humans. If our brains did not make the image into reality and put in the missing aspects of it, like the cow, then magic tricks would be much easier to believe. But people still believe the magic tricks, some not kids, even though the brain does this for us. I don't understand that. This article was very interesting, and I liked reading it.
Following mind puzzles here is the link to an awesome video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xqmhd24Is9I
This article was amazing, but kind of strange. If humans are that evolved, how can we not see a gorilla walking right where are eye is. That is kind of stupid. I've seen plenty of magic, and it all seems real. The article says that a lot of magicians use that method, and that is what can make tricks, like the sawing a person in half thing, look amazing. There are a lot of tricks that look like they are in plain sight. If I ever go to a magic show again, I am definitely going to see the bigger picture. My assumption is that people are focusing on the trick. For example, when they pull a dollar out of a person's ear, people are looking at the person, not at the magician. That whole time the magician could be plotting, but the audience is looking at the person just standing there. This was a very fascinating and educational article.
I think that it is cool how we can actually learn things from magic. I always knew that magic wasn't magic,it was sleight of hand or something, but I never could figure out how they did it. To tell the truth, I still can't. I think that it is interesting how there are specific spots that make us "blind" to what is happening. I also think that maybe the magicians' popularity helps. We know when we see a magic show that something amazing is going to happen, so we hang on to the magician's every move, making it easier to be fooled by a distraction.
This also tells you that humans' minds are very gullible. If you look at the trick where someone throws a coin up and down and then does a fake throw to their other hand, our minds will be inclined to believe that the fake throw is real, and in doing so, they will fall for the trick, and be shocked when the coin appears in the same hand it started in. Once I finish this comment, I am going to try that on my dad.
The invisible gorilla was weird, but I think i understand it. Sometimes when you're so focused on something, you don't hear or see other things around you. When I read, everything disappears, because I am so focused on my book. I also wonder about the blind spots. I wonder, if you were not looking at a blind spot, would you have seen the coin out of your peripheral vision?
This was an amazing article. 5 stars for you!
Now that article was what I am going to call “long but interesting.”
I think magic is one of those things we probably take for granted, since the first thing we all probably think of when we see a magic trick is, “Oh I know that trick, that’s the one where he puts the coin in his hand!” But magic relating to science, it’s almost hard to see how these things connect to each other.
What I took from this article was that when we see magic being done, we think it is real only because are brains are fooling us. And like the article said, that we have “blind spots” in our attention, I think we can relate to that, especially when the teacher is talking, because I know at least three people in the class are just singing some Top 40 song and not paying attention to directions the teacher is giving.
There are some things, though, I did not understand, like when these scientists were saying that when there was a giant, attention catching gorilla pounding it’s chest in the middle of a basketball game, and nobody noticed, only because they were focused on counting the amount of passes made by the white team, that seems a bit unbelievable.
Apparently, our brains can be easily taken off focus or tricked, just by being shown a different object that takes you off focus from the old object you were looking at. Our brains also have a tendency to only expect the new object to be coming from the same place as the old object, which gives magicians an advantage, because if they can distract us with one object, they can do the trick with another. Like when Anthony Barnhart performs his coin trick, he shows an empty cup to the audience distracting them from the fact that he is doing something with the coin. A way to not be so gullible during a magic show is to try to disengage from the story the magician is telling you (that is what Anthony tells us).
What I would really like is a demonstration of magic and “blind spots” so I can understand the concept better. I would also like to know if this kind of science works with touch, too, for example: If somebody is giving me a massage but then they stop, somebody taps me on the shoulder and I look away, completely focused on the person I am talking to, even though the masseuse has already begun massaging me, would I notice the massaging? I am very curious.
Overall, this article was very surprising, because now I know that magicians can get away with their tricks by fooling my brain and eyes, but next time I see a magic show, I am going to beat the magician’s plan.
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