Magic, Bayes and wows: A Bayesian account of magic tricks

Grassi, Palazzo; Bartels, Andreas

doi:10.1016/j.neubiorev.2021.04.001

Cited by 9 publications

(9 citation statements)

References 101 publications

(143 reference statements)

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“…Specific connections to computer algorithms have been made, especially for teaching purposes ( Curzon and McOwan, 2008 ). Most relevant, direct parallels have been drawn to AI with machines designing tricks ( Williams and McOwan, 2016 ) and in the formalisation of surprise using Bayesian predictive coding ( Grassi and Bartels, 2021 ). To our knowledge, however, we are the first to apply them in a principled way to the problem of goal recognition.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extended Goal Recognition: Lessons from Magic

Masters

Smith

Kirley

2021

Front. Artif. Intell.

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The “science of magic” has lately emerged as a new field of study, providing valuable insights into the nature of human perception and cognition. While most of us think of magic as being all about deception and perceptual “tricks”, the craft—as documented by psychologists and professional magicians—provides a rare practical demonstration and understanding of goal recognition. For the purposes of human-aware planning, goal recognition involves predicting what a human observer is most likely to understand from a sequence of actions. Magicians perform sequences of actions with keen awareness of what an audience will understand from them and—in order to subvert it—the ability to predict precisely what an observer’s expectation is most likely to be. Magicians can do this without needing to know any personal details about their audience and without making any significant modification to their routine from one performance to the next. That is, the actions they perform are reliably interpreted by any human observer in such a way that particular (albeit erroneous) goals are predicted every time. This is achievable because people’s perception, cognition and sense-making are predictably fallible. Moreover, in the context of magic, the principles underlying human fallibility are not only well-articulated but empirically proven. In recent work we demonstrated how aspects of human cognition could be incorporated into a standard model of goal recognition, showing that—even though phenomena may be “fully observable” in that nothing prevents them from being observed—not all are noticed, not all are encoded or remembered, and few are remembered indefinitely. In the current article, we revisit those findings from a different angle. We first explore established principles from the science of magic, then recontextualise and build on our model of extended goal recognition in the context of those principles. While our extensions relate primarily to observations, this work extends and explains the definitions, showing how incidental (and apparently incidental) behaviours may significantly influence human memory and belief. We conclude by discussing additional ways in which magic can inform models of goal recognition and the light that this sheds on the persistence of conspiracy theories in the face of compelling contradictory evidence.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Extended Goal Recognition: Lessons from Magic

Masters

Smith

Kirley

2021

Front. Artif. Intell.

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“…However, combining the two methods made them virtually impenetrable. Grassi and Bartels (2021) have recently proposed a Bayesian approach to misdirection which uses a computational approach to explain how each of these different cognitive processes affect the way in which magicians can manipulate the observer's beliefs away from the real cause of the magic effect (i.e. the method) and accept the alternative beliefs about the effect (i.e.…”

Section: The Psychologically-based Taxonomy Of Misdirectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…This process of reducing prediction errors is seen as the basis of all human learning and this model has been applied to numerous cognitive processes. Grassi and Bartels (2021) have applied Bayesian predicative coding to explain misdirection, and this new model provides an effective way of explaining how misdirection principles interact with our current beliefs about the world. Grassi and Bartels (2021) argue that magic is best explained in terms of surprise, and an individual's level of surprise can be operationalized as the difference between our prior beliefs about the situation and the incoming sensory information -prediction error.…”

Section: Bayesian Approach To Misdirectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Grassi and Bartels (2021) have applied Bayesian predicative coding to explain misdirection, and this new model provides an effective way of explaining how misdirection principles interact with our current beliefs about the world. Grassi and Bartels (2021) argue that magic is best explained in terms of surprise, and an individual's level of surprise can be operationalized as the difference between our prior beliefs about the situation and the incoming sensory information -prediction error. For example, it is very unlikely that rabbits appear from nowhere, and thus our prior beliefs about this occurring are extremely low.…”

Section: Bayesian Approach To Misdirectionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Misdirection – Magic, Psychology and its Application

Kuhn

Kingori

Grietens

2022

S&TS

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The art of magic relies on deception and illusions to create human experiences that appear impossible. Misdirection lies at the heart of this deceptive art, and yet there is little consensus as to what this concept aims to describe. The concept of misdirection is not limited to magic, and its principles are applied to wide aspects of our lives (e.g., politics, public health, marketing). In recent years, scientists have started to examine the psychological mechanisms that underpin misdirection and new theoretical frameworks have been developed to help understand the concept itself. This paper will provide two different perspectives on misdirection. In the first section we will discuss its use in magic and examine some of the key features involved in using misdirection to create magical illusions. This section will examine some common misconceptions of misdirection. The second section will provide a psychological perspective that discusses the key psychological mechanisms that are involved in misdirection (perception, memory, reasoning). This paper aims to provide a clearer understanding of how misdirection is used in magic which can serve as the basis for its use in other domains, such as public health.

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“…However, there is very little empirical work examining why people enjoy these impossible moments. In fact, despite the popular appeal of such magical illusions, there are only a handful of theoretical frameworks to explain why or how people enjoy magic ( Leddington, 2016a , 2017 ; Grassi & Bartels, 2021 ; Kuhn, 2019 ). Magic is unique in that it allows us to experience things that we believe to be impossible ( Kuhn, 2019 ), and in this paper we examine the link between enjoyment and the perceived impossibility that such illusions elicit.…”

mentioning

confidence: 99%

A balanced view of impossible aesthetics: An empirical investigation of how impossibility relates to our enjoyment of magic tricks

Bagienski

Kuhn

2023

i-Perception

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The performance art of magic allows us to experience the impossible, and this study used a balancing magic trick to investigate the relationship between participants’ enjoyment and perceived impossibility. Participants watched a live performance of a magic trick in which the magician balanced objects in progressively more impossible configurations. At seven different time points observers rated their enjoyment, and the extent to which they believed what they saw was impossible. Regression analysis revealed that participants’ enjoyment of the magical effect relates to their perceived impossibility of the magic trick, and this relationship was independent of how much they enjoyed magic in general. Moreover, a one-way within-subjects analysis of variance showed that participants enjoyed the performance More as the trick became more impossible. However, once the magical effect was anticipated, enjoyment began to plateau while perceived impossibility continued to increase. These results are discussed in the context of people's aesthetic appreciation of magic and current arts appreciation models.

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Magic, Bayes and wows: A Bayesian account of magic tricks

Cited by 9 publications

References 101 publications

Extended Goal Recognition: Lessons from Magic

Extended Goal Recognition: Lessons from Magic

Misdirection – Magic, Psychology and its Application

A balanced view of impossible aesthetics: An empirical investigation of how impossibility relates to our enjoyment of magic tricks

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