Magic for the mind's eye: A promising avenue for more universal design in the art of magic

Abstract

In the art of conjuring, as well as in cognitive science, possibilities for designing magic tricks that are suitable for people who are blind or visually impaired have only rarely been considered. In this article, we argue that many magic tricks which are normally presented in a visual way, are not inherently based on visual processes, but instead on systematic illusions and limitations in visual imagery and mental simulations. Accordingly, it should be possible to adapt these tricks for presentation in a non-visual format, which should be suitable for people who are blind or visually impaired. As an initial test of this general approach, we adapted three magic tricks for non-visual presentation and presented them for blindfolded participants. Standard versions of the tricks were also presented to seeing participants. The participants in both groups were asked to indicate how magical they felt the tricks were, as well as whether they had any idea about the secrets behind them. The results suggest that the non-visual versions of the tricks are roughly comparable to the regular visual versions. We conclude that adapting magic tricks based on illusions of imagery for non-visual presentation appears to be a promising avenue for more universal design in the art of magic. We also argue that the illusions of imagery responsible for the experiences of magic evoked presents interesting challenges for basic cognitive science.