In an astounding scientific feat, a team of psychologists from the extremely prestigious University of Cambridge has proven that they’re capable of fooling birds — with your run-of-the-mill, ...

A small experiment using sleights of hand and illusions offers insights into how birds and people perceive the world. By Veronique Greenwood The coin is in the illusionist’s left hand, now it’s in the ...

Most magic tricks require a fairly sophisticated understanding of how humans perceive the world. To fall for a trick, people have to see things they perceive as important and ignore things that are ...

Psychologists have long studied how magic deceives us. Illusionists exploit shortcomings in our attention and perception to prevent us seeing what is in front of our eyes, and learning how their ...

University of Cambridge provides funding as a member of The Conversation UK. Magic tricks can teach us about how the brain works. Magic capitalises on very specific blind spots in people’s attention ...

IN HIS right hand, Elias Garcia-Pelegrin holds a worm. He pretends to grab it with his left but, while his fingers obscure it, he lets it drop back into the right – a classic sleight of hand called ...

I tried slight of hand with my puffer and he was very angry about it. He went and sulked in the back corner for several hours. He wouldn't trust my next offering of food he just sulked. All I did was ...