Jove
Visualize
Contact Us
JoVE
x logofacebook logolinkedin logoyoutube logo
ABOUT JoVE
OverviewLeadershipBlogJoVE Help Center
AUTHORS
Publishing ProcessEditorial BoardScope & PoliciesPeer ReviewFAQSubmit
LIBRARIANS
TestimonialsSubscriptionsAccessResourcesLibrary Advisory BoardFAQ
RESEARCH
JoVE JournalMethods CollectionsJoVE Encyclopedia of ExperimentsArchive
EDUCATION
JoVE CoreJoVE BusinessJoVE Science EducationJoVE Lab ManualFaculty Resource CenterFaculty Site
Terms & Conditions of Use
Privacy Policy
Policies

Related Concept Videos

Magical Thinking01:29

Magical Thinking

250
Magical thinking encompasses the belief in assumptions that defy logical reasoning yet appear intuitively convincing. It is a common psychological phenomenon that persists across various cultural and individual contexts. While these assumptions contradict empirical evidence and scientific laws, they often serve meaningful psychological roles in promoting emotional resilience and a sense of control, especially under stress or uncertainty.Thought-Action Fusion and the Law of SimilarityA key...
250
Colors and Magnetism03:02

Colors and Magnetism

14.4K
Color in Coordination Complexes
When atoms or molecules absorb light at the proper frequency, their electrons are excited to higher-energy orbitals. For many main group atoms and molecules, the absorbed photons are in the ultraviolet range of the electromagnetic spectrum, which cannot be detected by the human eye. For coordination compounds, the energy difference between the d orbitals often allows photons in the visible range to be absorbed and emitted, which is seen as colors by the human...
14.4K
Magnetism01:30

Magnetism

9.3K
Magnets are commonly found in everyday objects, such as toys, hangers, elevators, doorbells, and computer devices. Experimentation on these magnets shows that all magnets have two poles: one is labeled north (N) and the other south (S). Magnetic poles repel if they are alike and attract if unlike. Moreover, both poles of a magnet attract unmagnetized pieces of iron.
An individual magnetic pole cannot be isolated. No matter how small, every piece of a magnet contains a north pole and a south...
9.3K
Potential Due to a Magnetized Object01:24

Potential Due to a Magnetized Object

847
Magnetic dipoles in magnetic materials are aligned when placed under an external magnetic field. For paramagnets and ferromagnets, dipole alignment occurs in the direction of the magnetic field. However, the dipoles align opposite to the field in the case of diamagnets. This state of magnetic polarization due to the external field is called magnetization. Magnetization is defined as the dipole moment per unit volume. It plays a similar role to polarization in electrostatics.
The vector...
847
Extrasensory Perception01:23

Extrasensory Perception

1.0K
Extrasensory perception, or ESP, suggests the ability to perceive events beyond the conventional senses of sight, hearing, and touch. Parapsychologists, who research ESP and related psychic phenomena, categorize ESP into three main types: precognition, telepathy, and clairvoyance.
Precognition involves foreseeing future events, such as predicting an accident before it happens. An example of precognition could be someone dreaming about a specific event, like a car crash, which then occurs...
1.0K
Creative Thinking01:25

Creative Thinking

1.4K
Creative thinking encompasses innovative and unconventional methods for addressing challenges, often leading to groundbreaking solutions. Instead of focusing solely on enhancing existing systems, such as increasing smartphone battery capacity, creative thinking might inspire advancements like energy-efficient batteries or processors that minimize power consumption. This multidimensional approach underscores the importance of exploring novel pathways to innovation.
Divergent thinking is the...
1.4K

You might also read

Related Articles

Articles linked to this work by shared authors, journal, and citation graph.

Sort by
Same author

Understanding Navon: Different designs of local-global tasks capture different bias effects.

Attention, perception & psychophysics·2026
Same author

Impact of crowding on visual appearance and performance in amblyopia.

Vision research·2026
Same author

Information compression trumps accuracy when viewing groups of faces.

Consciousness and cognition·2026
Same author

improvement of peripheral visual discrimination through mental imagery.

iScience·2026
Same author

Tracing aesthetic experience from perception and conception to appraisal using deep convolutional neural networks.

iScience·2026
Same author

From pixels to perception: A benchmark for human-like symmetry detection.

Vision research·2026

Related Experiment Video

Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Fabrication of an Expandable Brain Matrix Customizable Across Developmental Stages
11:35

Fabrication of an Expandable Brain Matrix Customizable Across Developmental Stages

Published on: February 20, 2026

191

The Other Side of Magic.

Vebjørn Ekroll1, Bilge Sayim1, Johan Wagemans1

  • 1Laboratory of Experimental Psychology, University of Leuven (KU Leuven), Belgium.

Perspectives on Psychological Science : a Journal of the Association for Psychological Science
|January 12, 2017
PubMed
Summary

Magic tricks leverage psychological principles, particularly perception and cognition, to create illusions. Understanding these cognitive processes offers insights into human experience and perception.

Keywords:
amodal completioncognitive impenetrabilitymagicproblem solvingvisual metacognition

More Related Videos

Recording Ultra-Realistic Full-Color Analog Holograms for Use in a Moving Hologram Display
09:04

Recording Ultra-Realistic Full-Color Analog Holograms for Use in a Moving Hologram Display

Published on: January 14, 2020

10.4K
In Utero Electroporation of Multiaddressable Genome-Integrating Color MAGIC Markers to Individualize Cortical Mouse Astrocytes
06:47

In Utero Electroporation of Multiaddressable Genome-Integrating Color MAGIC Markers to Individualize Cortical Mouse Astrocytes

Published on: May 21, 2020

6.0K

Related Experiment Videos

Last Updated: Mar 9, 2026

Fabrication of an Expandable Brain Matrix Customizable Across Developmental Stages
11:35

Fabrication of an Expandable Brain Matrix Customizable Across Developmental Stages

Published on: February 20, 2026

191
Recording Ultra-Realistic Full-Color Analog Holograms for Use in a Moving Hologram Display
09:04

Recording Ultra-Realistic Full-Color Analog Holograms for Use in a Moving Hologram Display

Published on: January 14, 2020

10.4K
In Utero Electroporation of Multiaddressable Genome-Integrating Color MAGIC Markers to Individualize Cortical Mouse Astrocytes
06:47

In Utero Electroporation of Multiaddressable Genome-Integrating Color MAGIC Markers to Individualize Cortical Mouse Astrocytes

Published on: May 21, 2020

6.0K

Area of Science:

  • Psychological Science
  • Cognitive Psychology
  • Perceptual Psychology

Background:

  • Magicians manipulate psychological reality to create illusions.
  • Conjuring principles are relevant to psychological science.
  • Magic tricks often rely on automatic perceptual and cognitive processes.

Purpose of the Study:

  • To explore the role of perceptual and cognitive principles in magic tricks.
  • To understand why certain magic tricks are highly effective.
  • To use magic tricks as a heuristic for studying perception and cognition.

Main Methods:

  • Analyzing magic tricks through the lens of perceptual and cognitive psychology.
  • Delineating how automatic cognitive and perceptual processes contribute to magical effects.
  • Examining self-working magic tricks that rely on inherent human cognitive biases.

Main Results:

  • Many magic tricks are 'self-working' due to automatic perceptual and cognitive processes.
  • These underlying processes are often unobservable, even to magicians.
  • Insights from perceptual psychology explain the effectiveness of many illusions.

Conclusions:

  • Magic tricks offer a unique framework for understanding human perception and cognition.
  • Studying seemingly simple magic tricks can reveal complex cognitive mechanisms.
  • This research provides a novel approach to exploring unexplored aspects of the human mind.