Audience Misdirection in Magic Acts

Audience Misdirection in Magic Acts For hundreds of years, magicians have performed acts which are perceived to be impossible, causing the viewer to question how the act was performed. The viewer would generally know that act performed by the magician will use some sort of trickery or illusion, but still viewers are usually unable to detect the change when it occurs, even when the trick is in full view of the audience. Sometimes when a magician performs a magic trick, he uses misdirection to trick the audience. The magician would usually draw your attention elsewhere while the trick is being performed to stop the audience seeing how it is done (Kuhn, Amlani Rensink, 2008). Kuhn and Tatler (2005) recorded eye fixations of the audience as a magician was performing a magic trick developed especially to see the effect of misdirection on the audience. It was a relatively simple trick; lasting only 15 seconds, where the magician was to drop a lighter and cigarette into his lap without the audience seeing, causing the audience to think the items had magically disappeared. First the magician removes the cigarette from the packet and deliberately puts it in his mouth the wrong way round. He then pretends to light the cigarette, which enhances the audiences interest in the mouth/cigarette region. Both magician and the audience then realise the mistake, and the magician turns the cigarette around with his left hand while keeping his gaze fixed on his hand and cigarette. During this time the magician drops the lighter into his lap, which is in his right hand. He then causes attention to go to the disappearance of the lighter by attempting to light the cigarette. When he is unable to light the cigarette, he looks to his right hand, snaps his fingers and waves his hand; pulling the audiences attention to his right hand. While the audience are looking at the disappearance of the lighter in the right hand, the magician drops the cigarette from a height of around 15cm. He then turns his gaze to his left hand, and opens it to show that the cigarette is also disappeared. The magician uses gaze direction to disguise his actions while performing the trick (Tatler Kuhn, 2007). Generally, people have an urge to follow the gaze of others, in particular when there is pointing or another similar gesture involved that pulls the viewers attention to a specific place. While dropping both the lighter and the cigarette from his hand, the magicians gaze is focussed in the opposite hand to which the trick is being performed. This causes the audiences attention to also be focused on where the magician is looking, and makes them miss the lighter and cigarette being dropped. The dropping of the lighter was not very visible and could very easily be missed; however the dropping of the cigarette was done in full view of the audience, from about 15cm above the table top, but this action is also not usually detected, usually due to gaze misdirection. This shows that the magician successfully misdirected the audiences overt and covert attention at the correct time during the trick, right when the disappearance occurs. Surprisingly, when the audience were told that the magician was going to misdirect them while performing the trick, most people are still unable to stop themselves looking where the magician was looking and therefore miss detecting how the disappearance was performed. When in close interaction people tend to look at each other a lot in an conversation setting, the average time people tend to look at each other is 75% of the time when listening, and 40% of the time when talking (Land Tatler, 2009). As the audience are viewing the magic trick, their attention is focussed on the magician who is performing the trick, and so have an urge to follow his gaze in whichever direction he is looking. The sharing of attention is a strong social cue, whereby people appear to look in the direction they see others looking. When an event or fully visible item is not noticed by the audience, it is often called intentional blindness (Kuhn Tatler, 2010). By the magician drawing the attention of the audience to his hand by snapping and waving it, he creates an area of high visual interest, which the audience are preoccupied with by processing those actions of the magician. Because of this, they fail to notice the event occurring in the opposite hand, which is an area of low visual interest to the audience. Kuhn and Tatler (2005) also considered visual factors which could cause the audience not to detect the change, such as blinking, and the distance of the fixations of the audience when the drop is taking place. However, these do not seem to influence whether the drop was detected or not by the audience. Blinking when the drop took place did not influence whether the audience detected the change or not. There was also not much difference in where the audience were looking and whether they detected the drop or not. When the magician dropped the cigarette, most viewers were looking at the magicians face, his right hand or the space in between. In the first trial only 2 people detected the drop and 18 participants did not detect the drop. What is interesting though, when the participants were shown the magician performing the trick again, all participants detected the cigarette being dropped. In the second viewing, most of the audience still look at the same place they were looking before; around the right hand and the magicians face, but this time, they are able to detect the drop. Only three participants looked where the cigarette was at the time of the dropping. This shows that the magician was successfully manipulating the audiences covert attention as well as overt attention in the first trial, but in the second viewing he was less successful at manipulating the audiences covert attention; allowing the audience to see how the trick was performed in the second viewing. There is also a difference in whether the disappearance of the cigarette and the lighter is detected by the audience depending on it being a live performance (when the trick is performed in front of the audience) or whether the audience watch the trick being performed on a screen. Kuhn, Tatler, Findlay and Cole (2008) found that the audience are more likely to detect the disappearance of the cigarette when watching the trick being performed on a screen, rather than in a live performance. This shows that the audience have a closer connection to the magician while performing the trick live, and are more susceptible to following the magicians social cues and misdirection to stop them uncovering how the disappearance occurs. However, even when viewing the trick being performed on a screen, the audience still look in the same area, so they do follow the gaze of the magician. The study found no difference in the fixation of the audience and whether the disappearance was detected or not, bu t they did find a connection in the time taken to go from one fixation to the other. People who detected the disappearance are simply faster at moving their eyes to the left hand from which the cigarette disappeared. It is interesting how the magician manages to avoid this detection of the trick, even though it is fully visible. He pulls the overt and covert attention of the audience away from where the trick is being conducted, simply by his gaze direction. Misdirection usually works as the magician creates an area of high visual interest were most of the audience look, and performs the disappearance in an area of low visual interest. Eye direction plays an important part in misdirection. In another experiment by Kuhn and Land (2006), a magician performs a disappearing ball trick. The magician throws a ball in the air three times while keeping his gaze on the movement of the ball. As the ball goes in the air, his eye gaze also goes in that direction. On the third throw however, the ball seems to disappear while in the air. There are two conditions in this trick; firstly the magicians gaze also goes up when the ball is thrown for the third time, and his gaze follows the movement which the ball is expected to take, and seems as though he is expecting the ball to come back down. In the second condition the magicians gaze is fixed on his hand for the third throw. This experiment shows that misdirection using eye gaze provides a huge impact on the results. 68% of the participants believed that the ball had left the screen in the air when the magician was looking upward on the third throw, but only 32% believed that the ball had disappeared in the air when the magicians gaze was fixed on his hand. This result shows that social cuing and gaze direction plays an important role in misdirection in magic. However, the eye movements of the participants showed that on the third throw, the area in which participants looked differed to where they looked for the first two throws. The eye fixations showed a pattern eye movements went from the magicians hand, to his face, to the air (where the ball would be) and then back down to his hand. This would be repeated again for the second throw, but for the third throw, when the ball disappeared, participants eye gaze was fixed around the area of the magicians face, or not far from his head. This fixation also occurred on those participants who were sure the ball had been thrown and had disappeared upwards. This shows that people perceived something had happened, even though they had not followed the gaze of the magician. This demonstrates that gaze direction matters and influences the audience to look where the magician looks. In conclusion, a magician misdirects his audience mainly through gaze direction. He looks in the opposite hand to which the disappearance is occurring, causing the gaze of the audience miss discovering how the trick had been performed. People generally follow the gaze of others,; look where they see someone else looking, and so the magician uses this strong social cue to influence his audience to also look where he looks. He creates an area of high visual interest for the viewer, by waving and snapping his hand, and performs the trick in an area of low visual interest to the viewer. By doing this he successfully misdirects the audiences attention, and performs the trick without anyone discovering how the cigarette disappeared.

Dialectics of Internal and External :: Philosophy Philosophical Papers

Dialectics of Internal and External ABSTRACT: The central topic of this paper is the analysis of the dialectical interdependency of internal and external in the theory of language as a symbolic system. Referring to and analyzing the philosophic legacy of W. von Humboldt, B. Russell, L. Wittgenstein, F. de Saussure and G. Spet, the author concludes that the dialectics of internal and external is not an accidental and episodic phenomenon of language. It rather is an intrinsic, ontological trait apart from which an adequate cognition of the essence of language is impossible. Taking the internal form as a logical structure, it is possible to view it as something "higher and fundamental" in language, something that is attainable more by intuition than by research. The internal intellectual base of this grammatical stability lies in the sphere of purely logical forms. If internal word formulations are related to and governed by the spirit, then the external forms in fact conceal an inner grammatical and syntactic edifice. Th e laws of external speech functioning are manifested, for example, in bilingualism, which may be viewed either as a social phenomenon related to individual thinking and classificatory abilities or as an evidence of the existence of common verbal structures in human consciousness. The author proposes to transfer such linguistic terms as "bilingualism" and "contamination" into a different context as a way of seeking new topical domains within the linguistic philosophy and the philosophy of language. The empiricism of specific language functioning in the form of bilingual language contamination brings us back to the assumption of the existence of uniform internal metalanguage structures of verbal thinking. The Internal Form as a Language Structure Ever since Bertrand Russell, analytical philosophy has searched for an inner logical form of the sentence that could be true with respect to the world. Obviously, the superficial external grammatical form of sentences that we comprehend is a weak expression of the true form of corresponding facts. "Poor grammar" introduced many errors in traditional metaphysics disallowing distinctions available exclusively in the new logic. There is a need for a "philosophical grammar" — a grammar, because we speak about the form of the sentences, and philosophical because it should address not only the external but also the internal grammatical structures and reflect their interactions and transmutations thus revealing forms and elements that create the reality of true sentences. A new meaning of philosophy began with Wittgenstein's Tractatus.

Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson Presidency

Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson both made their mark on United States history as presidents. One president was a wild, violent â€Å"Rough Rider† who was also insecure. The other was a deeply religious, sentimental traditionalist who stood firmly on his ground. Both presidents made changes in American life, whether it be business or social. By examining domestic policies of Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson, one can see that although they differed greatly, both were effective presidents. Theodore Roosevelt was a sickly child. His father helped him train to overcome his debilitation, and set him on his way to be a â€Å"Rough Rider. Woodrow Wilson†s father was a Presbyterian minister, and his mother a daughter of one; they instilled a stolid set of morals that Woodrow Wilson carried with him his whole life. Both presidents came from socially secure backgrounds that gave them distinguishing characteristics. Both presidents, however, dramatically changed their public view to support the ideals of the common man in America. Theodore Roosevelt started off his presidency say that he â€Å"shall go slow† in the process of investigating large corporations. He was insecure, afraid that some of his policies upset the corporations. However, as his terms went on, the president gained a reputation for being a Progressive. According to Hofstadter, â€Å"[Reform] was meant to heal only the most conspicuous sores on the body politic. † Roosevelt wrote that he did not know what, if anything, should be done about trusts. The main reason he distrusted and despised bigness in business was because he was a â€Å"big politician facing a strong rival in the business of achieving power. † Roosevelt proposed reforms and blasted dishonesty in business with â€Å"the showiest language that had ever been used in the White House. His use of language caused the public image of him to be a reformer and it contributed real weight to that side. However, Roosevelt did do his share of trust busting. A brilliant stroke of publicity was the prosecution of the Northern Securities Company. A gigantic railroad monopoly in the Northwest was organized, and Roosevelt had practically no choice but to prosecute; the public branded him the reputation of being a major reformer. Woodrow Wilson was the president of Princeton University. He gained large support, and was approached by Boss Jim Smith and his associates to run for New Jersey governor. Wilson accepted and decided he could cooperate with them on righteous terms. Progressives started to complain almost immediately. The Hoboken Observer wrote against Wilson, saying that he was â€Å"induced to enter the race by a combination of the very elements which the Progressives are fighting . . . and these elements have assumed charge of his candidacy. † He responded by changing to please the people. It had been necessary to please the capitalists and the bosses to get a foothold in politics, but now it seemed that he must enter the governorship â€Å"with absolutely no pledges of any kind. † Wilson became a spokesman for the common man. When the people had expressed preference for a man running for the Senate, Wilson opposed the Bosses by endorsing the man the people wanted instead of the man that would have won. Wilson did not let his private obligations override his public ones. He believed in principles over personality, and the man became increasingly stronger as a reformer. Endorsement of the progressive creed by Wilson created a break with his original sponsor when running for president, and a complete change in his support followed after he dumped Harvey and befriended Bryan. For both of these presidents, these events show that not only did they change their public image, they also gained popularity by being ambiguous in their speeches and actions; the ambiguity only furthered their popularity. Morals was also a large factor in the two presidencies. The role in which Roosevelt imagined himself was that of a moralist. He told Lincoln Steffens that the real need in American public life was â€Å"the fundamental fight for morality. † Roosevelt told Ray Stannard Baker that although economic issues would become increasingly important, his â€Å"problems are moral problems, and [his] teaching has been plain morality. Woodrow Wilson, the son of the minister and the minister†s daughter, ate, drank and slept morals. The solution to controlling business must be found in a movement of moral regeneration, according to him. Punishment should fall on individuals and not on whole corporations. In one of Wilson†s most frequently used metaphors, the maleficent corporation official was the irresponsible driver of the corporate automobile. He said, â€Å"One really responsible man in jail . . . would be worth more than one thousand corporations mulcted in fines. This contradicts with Roosevelt, who wanted to punish whole corporations, but the same message upholds; morals are the root of the solution, and the main objective is to regulate business by keeping them under the State. Both Theodore Roosevelt and Woodrow Wilson were effective presidents. Theodore Roosevelt persecuted the Northern Securities Company, launching a trust-busting crusade, and he became the first president to intervene in a labor-management dispute when the anthracite coal miners struck. The Hepburn Act strengthened the authority of the Interstate Commerce Commission over railroads, and an employer†s liability law were put into action. Woodrow Wilson ‘s administration produced a huge number of achievements. A downward tariff revision was secured, the public controlled the nation†s banking and credit system under the Federal Reserve Act, and farmers were pleased with the Federal Farm Loan Act and the Warehousing Act. The Clayton Act implemented the Sherman Anti-Trust Act, and the Federal Trade Commission was created to enjoin what Wilson had called â€Å"illicit competition. † An eight-hour day for railroad workers in interstate commerce, a child-labor act, and a compensation law for Civil Service workers were all created under the Wilson administration. So although Roosevelt and Wilson differed, there effectiveness is clearly present while comparing their domestic policies as presidents.

Slavery And Colonial Rule During Colonialism - 1459 Words

Slavery and Colonial Rule During the years of European colonialism in Africa, slavery was used as the main source of labor for various colonial projects. Slaves worked on various levels of service to the colonial powers, especially the French. These include working on plantations and military service. Even though the French and the British were profiting from the labor and oppression of Africans, they soon faced opposition for their use of slavery as a tool for economic gain. In this essay, I will explain these elements of slavery in colonial rule, by detailing information from Martin Klein’s Slavery and Colonial Rule in French West Africa, and Trevor Getz’s Slavery and Reform in West Africa. Klein discusses the status of the slave and the history of mistreatment by Europeans. He focuses on the time when the Portuguese came to Senegambia during the 1600s. It was during this time that â€Å"slave labor was being used to feed the courts of coastal kings as it was used in the medieval empires of t he interior.† These slaves were enemy combatants, who were captured and sentenced to work as punishment. The author mentioned that slaves during this period did not have rights or an official identity. Many of them faced many forms of persecution and mistreatment. By the time the French had take over, slaves were to be punished by having the master make them â€Å"sleep in irons, but if they accepted their status, their condition was ameliorated.† As time passed, and as other markets becameShow MoreRelatedThe Geographic, Political, and Ethnic Impact European Colonialism Has Played on the Present History of Africa 1486 Words   |  6 Pagesdebate on how the current political and economic failures in Africa can be traced back to the advent of colonialism. 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