biology

Sleights of Mind

Sleights of Mind is a biology topic covered in the lgStudy science library. This page brings together a partial reference excerpt, illustrations, worked examples, real-world applications and a short study plan, so you can understand Sleights of Mind rather than just read about it. In short: Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions is a 2010 popular science book, written by neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, with science writer Sandra Blakeslee. Working alongside several magicians, Macknik and Martinez-Conde studied how conjuring techniques trick the brain.

Key takeaways

Sleights of Mind belongs to biology; place it in that map before memorising details.
Learn the definition first, then one example that makes the definition concrete.
Connect Sleights of Mind to a quantity you can measure, compute or draw — that is where exam questions come from.
Reproduce the core statement of Sleights of Mind from memory before moving on to harder problems.

Reference excerpt

Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals about Our Everyday Deceptions is a 2010 popular science book, written by neuroscientists Stephen Macknik and Susana Martinez-Conde, with science writer Sandra Blakeslee. Working alongside several magicians, Macknik and Martinez-Conde studied how conjuring techniques trick the brain. Sleights of Mind considers the greater implications of magic and misdirection for clinical conditions such as autism, and for everyday life situations, including choice and trust in personal and business relationships. Sleights of Mind introduces Neuromagic as a new area of scientific endeavor, a discipline aimed to uncover the interaction between brain science and the art of magic. Macknik and Martinez-Conde propose that understanding how the mind perceives magic and illusion will provide a greater understanding of perception and cognition at large.

Synopsis Macknik and Martinez-Conde say that magic tricks fool us because humans have hardwired processes of attention and awareness that are hackable. Good magicians use our inherent mental and neural limitations against us by leading us to perceive and feel what we are neurologically inclined to. Working with renowned magicians like Apollo Robbins, Teller, Mac King, and James Randi, Macknik and Martinez-Conde research the ways in which the perceptual and cognitive elements of magic relate to more than simple deceits. The authors reveal the neural underpinnings of the magical methods that explain how our brains perceive magic. Through their exploration, Macknik and Martinez-Conde uncover how our brains work in everyday situations. They describe how if you have ever bought an expensive item you had sworn you would never buy, the salesperson was creating the "illusion of choice", a core technique of magic. They also relate the use of magic to Bernie Madoff's "illusion of trust". Through these examples, Sleights of Mind illuminates the reasons for studying magic, and its implications for research on, and renewed understanding of, perceptual and cognitive processes.

Awards Evening Standard Best Book of the Year List Prisma Prize

Critical reception The book has been reviewed by authors of other science-related books, including Neil deGrasse Tyson, Dan Ariely and J. J. Abrams. It has also been reviewed in the New York Times and The Wall Street Journal.

References

External links "How Visual Illusions Work". The Wall Street Journal. November 20, 2010. Retrieved August 12, 2019. "It's a Kind of Magic!". Birmingham Skeptics. June 25, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2019. "Sleights Of Mind In Healthcare: Do You Believe In Magic". Women 2.0. December 7, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2019. "Sleights of mind". Curious Book Fans. February 6, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2019. "Review: Sleights of Mind: What the Neuroscience of Magic Reveals About Our Everyday Deceptions". Dana Foundation. January 31, 2011. Retrieved August 12, 2019.

Worked examples

Example 1 — a first encounter with Sleights of Mind

Start with the simplest possible case. Write down what Sleights of Mind claims or describes in one sentence, then invent the smallest concrete situation in which that sentence is true. In biology, the smallest case is usually a single object, a single equation or a single measurement. Check that every symbol or term in your sentence has a meaning in that case.

Example 2 — changing one variable

Take the situation from Example 1 and change exactly one quantity: double it, halve it, or set it to zero. Predict what should happen to Sleights of Mind before you calculate. Comparing your prediction with the result is the fastest way to find out whether you understand the idea or only the words.

Example 3 — an exam-style question

Typical questions about Sleights of Mind ask you to (a) state it precisely, (b) apply it to given data, and (c) explain a limitation. Practise writing all three answers in under five minutes; the third part is what separates a full-mark answer from an average one.

Applications of Sleights of Mind

In research: Sleights of Mind appears in biology research whenever the underlying quantities have to be modelled precisely. Papers usually cite it as a starting assumption and then explore where it breaks down.
In technology and industry: Engineering practice reuses Sleights of Mind in design rules, simulations and safety margins. Knowing the idea lets you read a specification sheet and understand why the numbers look the way they do.
In the classroom: Sleights of Mind is common in secondary-school and first-year university syllabi. It links to neighbouring topics 2010 non-fiction books, Neuroscience books, Picador (imprint) books, so understanding it makes those chapters shorter.
In everyday life: Look for Sleights of Mind outside the textbook — in sport, cooking, traffic, electronics or the sky above you. An example you found yourself is remembered far longer than one you were given.

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How to study Sleights of Mind in 20 minutes

Read the reference excerpt below once, without taking notes.
Close the page and write down what Sleights of Mind means in your own words.
Compare your version with the excerpt and mark what you missed.
Work through the three examples above with pen and paper.
Explain Sleights of Mind out loud to somebody else — or to Teacher Smith in the lgStudy chat.

Frequently asked questions

What is Sleights of Mind in simple terms?

Why does Sleights of Mind matter?

Because it connects several biology ideas at once: it gives you a definition you can apply, a quantity you can calculate, and a way to check whether a result is plausible.

How should I study Sleights of Mind?

Read the excerpt, restate it from memory, then work through the examples and applications listed on this page. The five-step study plan above takes about twenty minutes.

What does this page cover?

It gives you a compact reference excerpt plus original lgStudy explanations, examples, applications and study material on Sleights of Mind.