Dataset for the article \"Magic for the mind’s eye: A promising avenue for more universal design in the art of magic\"

Dataset and R-scripts for the manuscript \"Magic for the mind’s eye: A promising avenue for more universal design in the art of magic\" by Ekroll, V., Wünsch, L. & van Lier, R.
Summary from the corresponding manuscript: In the art of conjuring, as well as in cognitive science, potential 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.

本数据集及R脚本对应Ekroll、Wünsch与van Lier合著的手稿"Magic for the mind’s eye: A promising avenue for more universal design in the art of magic"。该手稿的摘要如下：在魔术艺术与认知科学领域中，针对盲人群体或视障（visually impaired）人群设计魔术道具的可行方案极少被纳入考量范畴。本文提出，诸多常规以视觉形式呈现的魔术，其核心并非依赖视觉加工过程，而是依托系统性错觉以及视觉表象（visual imagery）与心理模拟（mental simulation）的局限性。据此，我们应当能够将这类魔术改编为非视觉呈现形式，以适配盲人群体或视障人群的使用需求。作为该通用研究思路的初步验证，我们将三项魔术改编为非视觉呈现版本，并向蒙眼参与者（blindfolded participants）展示；同时向视力正常参与者展示该魔术的标准视觉版本。两组参与者均需对自身感受到的魔术效果强度进行评价，并说明是否知晓魔术背后的原理。研究结果表明，非视觉版本的魔术效果与常规视觉版本大体相当。我们由此得出结论：基于表象错觉改编魔术以实现非视觉呈现，是推动魔术艺术走向更具普适性设计的可行路径。此外，我们还提出，引发魔术体验的表象错觉，也为基础认知科学研究带来了颇具趣味的研究课题。