Mind matters: Science of magic
Experiencing the impossible: why magic works
Magic is one of the most captivating and enduring forms of entertainment and magicians all over the world have baffled and amazed their audiences by creating magical illusion. Recent advances in our scientific understanding of magic are providing new insights into the nature of magic, and the ease by which magicians trick us highlights many of our mind’s limitations. These surprising and stunning illusions provide intriguing insights into how our brain works. We will use science, interactive demonstrations and magic to explore the psychology of magic and explain why our mind is so easily deceived.
Magicians create many of their illusions by exploiting huge gaps in our conscious experience, holes that we are typically unaware of. For example they use misdirection to manipulate your attention, which prevents you from noticing things that are right in front of your eyes. In this talk we will illustrate that the world you experience as being real is in fact simply an illusion, and question the idea that seeing is believing.
Understanding how and why our brain is fooled will dramatically change the way you judge yourself and others, and it will also provide you with a new appreciation of your brain’s amazing capacity. For example, did you know that you can really see the future?
Videos
Dr Gustav Kuhn and Dr Megan Freeth explore the neurology behind our experiences of what seems impossible. Using psychology they explain why it’s possible for us to be so easily deceived by visual illusions through exploiting gaps in our consciousness. They also provide a demonstration using eye-tracking technology to illustrate exactly where our eyes are looking and the power of misdirection.
An excerpt showing the view through the eye-tracking glasses
Speakers
Dr Gustav Kuhn is a Cognitive Psychologist at Goldsmiths, University of London, focused on human perception and cognition, especially in relation to magic! Magic exploits gaps in our conscious experience so can be used in Psychology to understand more about human cognition, attention and perception. Dr Kuhn also researches social cognition and attention in social interactions, similar to Dr Freeth’s work on eye-tracking. For more details on Dr Kuhn’s research interests and research questions see his staff Goldsmiths profile.
If you would like to learn more about the scientific study of magic and how the two intertwine then check out The Science of Magic Association website.
Links
Dr Megan Freeth is a lecturer in Cognitive Psychology at the University of Sheffield with a specialism in Attention. Her work has provided a range of important insights into typical and atypical attention (eg how those with autism view aspects the world differently). She focuses on social attention in the real world, the neural basis of social attention and the expression of autism in rare genetic syndromes. To read more about Megan’s research interest visit her University of Sheffield staff page.
In 2010 Megan won the Leverhulme Trust Early Career Fellowship; the project entitled ‘Attention to social Cues in Autism’ involved eye tracking studies investigating responses to cues in central and peripheral vision. EEG (electroencephalogram) studies also investigated the neural correlates of abnormal visual attention in autism.
Megan is a faculty member of the Sheffield Autism Research Lab.
To learn more about research into autism at The University of Sheffield
Attendee feedback
“Very good, excellent mixture of theory and practice delivered very well“
“I would gladly come again, wonderful staff, great lecture. Would 100% recommend to other people“
“Yes, good introduction. Very slick presentations. Live demonstration was very interesting.“
“Very interesting, good mix of science, psychology and magic.“
“Very amusing and informative, loved every part of it. Straight to the point as well as detailed and visual info.“