Against Better Knowledge: The Magical Force of Amodal Volume Completion

Ekroll, Vebjørn; Sayim, Bilge; Wagemans, Johan

doi:10.1068/i0622sas

Cited by 38 publications

(51 citation statements)

References 10 publications

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“…In a well-known magic trick known as multiplying balls, conjurers fool their audience with the use of a semi-spherical shell, which the audience perceives as a complete ball [1]. Here, we report that this illusion persists even when observers touch the inside of the shell with their own finger.…”

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confidence: 69%

Illusory Visual Completion of an Object’s Invisible Backside Can Make Your Finger Feel Shorter

et al. 2016

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In a well-known magic trick known as multiplying balls, conjurers fool their audience with the use of a semi-spherical shell, which the audience perceives as a complete ball [1]. Here, we report that this illusion persists even when observers touch the inside of the shell with their own finger. Even more intriguingly, this also produces an illusion of bodily self-awareness in which the finger feels shorter, as if to make space for the purely illusory volume of the visually completed ball. This observation provides strong evidence for the controversial and counterintuitive idea that our experience of the hidden backsides of objects is shaped by genuine perceptual representations rather than mere cognitive guesswork or imagery [2].

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confidence: 69%

Illusory Visual Completion of an Object’s Invisible Backside Can Make Your Finger Feel Shorter

et al. 2016

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“…According to Thomas and Didierjean (,b; Barnhart, ; see also Beth & Ekroll, ; Ekroll et al ., ; Ekroll & Wagemans, ; Kuhn & Rensink, ) during a magic trick, participants’ susceptibility to the illusion often relies on their capacity to reduce the dissonance between what they saw and what they expected to see. To reduce this dissonance, some participants could prioritize their beliefs and ignore some perceptual feedback (see Thomas & Didierjean, ).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Our perceptual experiences are influenced by our past experiences and expectations (see Hubbard, ; Intraub & Richardson, ; O'Regan, Rensink, & Clark, ; Simons & Chabris, ), and according to Kahneman (), the attribute substitution heuristic might also underpin some our perceptual experiences. For example, theories on amodal completion (Ekroll, Sayim, Van der Hallen, & Wagemans, ; Ekroll, Sayim, & Wagemans, ; Kanisza & Gerbino, ; Michotte, Thinés, & Crabbe, suggest that we have a natural tendency to use prior knowledge to fill in things we do not directly perceive. In other words, our perceptual system automatically substitutes the target attribute ‘what is visible and not occluded’ with the heuristic attribute ‘what (partially occluded) objects are constructed through amodal completion’.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

The Flushtration Count Illusion: Attribute substitution tricks our interpretation of a simple visual event sequence

Thomas

Didierjean

Kuhn

2018

British J of Psychology

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When faced with a difficult question, people sometimes work out an answer to a related, easier question without realizing that a substitution has taken place (e.g., Kahneman, 2011, Thinking, fast and slow. New York, Farrar, Strauss, Giroux). In two experiments, we investigated whether this attribute substitution effect can also affect the interpretation of a simple visual event sequence. We used a magic trick called the 'Flushtration Count Illusion', which involves a technique used by magicians to give the illusion of having seen multiple cards with identical backs, when in fact only the back of one card (the bottom card) is repeatedly shown. In Experiment 1, we demonstrated that most participants are susceptible to the illusion, even if they have the visual and analytical reasoning capacity to correctly process the sequence. In Experiment 2, we demonstrated that participants construct a biased and simplified representation of the Flushtration Count by substituting some attributes of the event sequence. We discussed of the psychological processes underlying this attribute substitution effect.

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“…Also, many magic tricks are based on visual or cognitive illusions (e.g., Macknik, Martinez-Conde, & Blakeslee, 2010). Investigating how magicians use such illusions in practice may lead to new insights in perception and cognition (Ekroll, Sayim, and Wagemans, 2013). Furthermore, some magic tricks force photographers using high resolution video cameras.…”

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confidence: 99%

Magic Curiosity Arousing Tricks (MagicCATs): A novel stimulus collection to induce epistemic emotions

Ozono¹,

Komiya²,

Kuratomi³

et al. 2020

Preprint

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Recent years have seen considerable interest in empirical research on epistemic emotions, i.e. emotions related to knowledge-generating qualities of cognitive tasks and activities such as curiosity, interest, and surprise. One big challenge when studying epistemic emotions is systematically inducting these emotions in restricted experimental settings. The current study created a novel stimulus set called Magic Curiosity Arousing Tricks (MagicCATs): a collection of 166 short magic trick video clips that aim to induce a variety of epistemic emotions. MagicCATs are available for research, and can be used in a variety of ways to examine epistemic emotions. Rating data also supports that the magic tricks elicit a variety of epistemic emotions with sufficient inter-stimulus variability, demonstrating good psychometric properties for their use in psychological experiments.

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Against Better Knowledge: The Magical Force of Amodal Volume Completion

Cited by 38 publications

References 10 publications

Illusory Visual Completion of an Object’s Invisible Backside Can Make Your Finger Feel Shorter

Illusory Visual Completion of an Object’s Invisible Backside Can Make Your Finger Feel Shorter

The Flushtration Count Illusion: Attribute substitution tricks our interpretation of a simple visual event sequence

Magic Curiosity Arousing Tricks (MagicCATs): A novel stimulus collection to induce epistemic emotions

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