The Neuroscience of Slydini's Paper Balls-to-Hat Magic Trick
Just as our visual system strains to see the vase and the two faces at once, we struggle to conceive of a motion that has a dual motivation: to put and to fetch.
Illusion Chasers
Illusions, Delusions, and Everyday Deceptions
The Implication of Motion
To celebrate our new article on implied motion in Scientific American Mind, here's a terrific movie of a chocolate zoetrope.
Why Babies (and Perhaps All of Us) Care About Magic
As adults, we don't often experience radical violations of our expectations, particularly those that concern core principles of object behavior.
Eyes Wide Shut: Laurie Simmons's Gaze Illusions
The latest project of photographer Laurie Simmons, who has previously portrayed life-like dolls in everyday poses, features live subjects with doll gazes.
Blind Justice: Biasing Moral Choices With Eye Tracking
Scientists have set out to demonstrate a causal relationship--not merely a correlation--between gaze duration and moral decision making.
Brain Awareness Week in NYC
This week is Brain Awareness Week 2015! A number of great events are taking place around the world to promote public education of the brain and to support research in neurological and psychiatric diseases...
The Unforeseen Joys of Encapsulating The Present
A recent study shows that underestimating the value of current experiences leads people to make time-inconsistent choices. We fail to document the present, only to wish we had done it, in the future...
Call for Illusion Submissions: The World's 11th Annual Best Illusion of the Year Contest
We are happy to announce the 11th edition of world's Best Illusion of the Year Contest!! Submissions are now welcome!
Why Julianne Moore and Taylor Swift See That Dress Differently
I don't think that the reason people see the dress differently from each other is an interesting brain process. Rather, it is a mundane differences in how people have viewed the image on their electronic display screens (phones, tablets, laptops, etc)...
Why Romantic Illusions Are a Good Thing
Scientists believe that idealizing one's partner can work as a self-fulfilling prophecy, where illusion eventually becomes reality. That is to say, people can help to create the partners they wish they had, by exaggerating their virtues and minimizing their faults in their own minds...
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