The science of magic: Why our minds are so easily deceived

Magicians show you how to experience the impossible. Psychologist Gustav Kuhn uses interactive demonstrations to reveal how our minds are so easily deceived.

[cards]

hate it when people are asking to be applauded every time.

[Vampus]

I kind of imagined the whole "looking but not seeing" thing like CERN collecting data. CERN's particle collider collects WAY too much data, so it does a basic filter on it and only keeps the "interesting bits". When we are looking around, we are taking in way too much visual data (as well as data from all our other senses), and our brain can't cope with it all, so does a basic filter and only keeps the interesting bits. In the case of the experiment, when the lady is talking to one guy and then that guy is swapped out, to her the specifics of the who isn't an "interesting bit", especially since he's the only person around her. The interesting bit is more the what and where of his question and her answer. If she had 5 guys around her she is in various stages of talking to, or if the guy she's talking to is mixing around with other people, I would imagine her brain would preference the guys look, face, voice and keep them as the interesting bits too.

[Tentacular]

I can't believe Harry Potter grew up to be giving away all the magic secrets like this.