Rensink Ronald A, Kuhn Gustav
Departments of Psychology and Computer Science, University of British Columbia Vancouver, BC, Canada.
Department of Psychology, Goldsmiths University of London London, UK.
Front Psychol. 2015 Feb 2;5:1508. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2014.01508. eCollection 2014.
Over the centuries, magicians have developed extensive knowledge about the manipulation of the human mind-knowledge that has been largely ignored by psychology. It has recently been argued that this knowledge could help improve our understanding of human cognition and consciousness. But how might this be done? And how much could it ultimately contribute to the exploration of the human mind? We propose here a framework outlining how knowledge about magic can be used to help us understand the human mind. Various approaches-both old and new-are surveyed, in terms of four different levels. The first focuses on the methods in magic, using these to suggest new approaches to existing issues in psychology. The second focuses on the effects that magic can produce, such as the sense of wonder induced by seeing an apparently impossible event. Third is the consideration of magic tricks-methods and effects together-as phenomena of scientific interest in their own right. Finally, there is the organization of knowledge about magic into an informative whole, including the possibility of a science centered around the experience of wonder.
几个世纪以来，魔术师们已经积累了关于操控人类思维的丰富知识——而这些知识在很大程度上被心理学所忽视。最近有人认为，这些知识有助于增进我们对人类认知和意识的理解。但这该如何实现呢？它最终又能在多大程度上促进对人类思维的探索呢？我们在此提出一个框架，概述如何利用关于魔术的知识来帮助我们理解人类思维。我们从四个不同层面审视了各种方法——既有旧方法，也有新方法。第一个层面聚焦于魔术中的手法，用这些手法为心理学中的现有问题提出新的研究方法。第二个层面关注魔术能够产生的效果，比如目睹一个看似不可能发生的事件所引发的惊奇感。第三个层面是将魔术技巧——手法和效果结合起来——视为本身就具有科学研究价值的现象。最后一个层面是将关于魔术的知识组织成一个信息丰富的整体，包括围绕惊奇体验构建一门科学的可能性。
