Prepare to be amazed

Magic loses much of its magic when it is described. Here are a few places to find demonstrations of the way it plays with perception, as well as a couple of examples of the cognitive blind spots that enable it.

The magician Apollo Robbins gave a talk and demonstration at the 2007 annual meeting of the Association for the Scientific Study of Consciousness. The video is here:

http://www.mindscience.org/magicsymposium/player.cfm?c=1

The paper "Towards a Science of Magic," by Gustav Kuhn, Alym Amlani, and Ronald A. Rensink, is due to be published online this week in the journal Trends in Cognitive Sciences. It discusses two tricks: a misdirection trick involving a disappearing cigarette and lighter, and a vanishing ball illusion. Here is video of both:

http://www.dur.ac.uk/gustav.kuhn/papers/TheScienceOfMagic/SupplementaryMaterial/SOM.htm

University of Illinois cognitive scientist Daniel Simons has done pioneering work demonstrating "change blindness"--our surprisingly robust inability to notice changes, even dramatic ones, that take place in our visual field. In one study, Simons' researchers would ask strangers for directions, then be replaced halfway through the exchange by a different person. Half the people approached were oblivious to the switch and simply continued giving directions.

Simons has looked at other forms of cognitive blindness, as well. One of his best-known studies was a demonstration of what's known as "inattentional blindness." Subjects were asked to watch a movie clip of people passing a basketball. The clip, as well as footage of the change blindness study (click on "View the 'door' video") are available at the site below. As you watch, count the number of passes that the white team makes. Afterward, ask yourself if you noticed anything unusual. Half of Simons's subjects did not:

http://viscog.beckman.uiuc.edu/media/globe.html