A magician's perspective on the cognitive processes that magicians take advantage of.
Magic has always played tricks with human cognition - by manipulating attention, distorting perceptions, or modifying memories. In this interview, Vancouver-based magician Alym Amlani, who also has a degree in psychology and visual cognition from the University of British Columbia, describes a few simple tricks by which magicians can exploit attentional phenomena, misdirection, and the use of human expectations, to prevent observers to identify the tricks they are playing on them.
