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Microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic

The methods of magicians provide powerful tools for enhancing the ecological validity of laboratory studies of attention. The current research borrows a technique from magic to explore the relationship between microsaccades and covert attention under near-natural viewing conditions. We monitored par...

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Autores principales: Barnhart, Anthony S., Costela, Francisco M., Martinez-Conde, Susana, Macknik, Stephen L., Goldinger, Stephen D.
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: Bern Open Publishing 2019
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7962680/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33828753
http://dx.doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.7
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author Barnhart, Anthony S.
Costela, Francisco M.
Martinez-Conde, Susana
Macknik, Stephen L.
Goldinger, Stephen D.
author_facet Barnhart, Anthony S.
Costela, Francisco M.
Martinez-Conde, Susana
Macknik, Stephen L.
Goldinger, Stephen D.
author_sort Barnhart, Anthony S.
collection PubMed
description The methods of magicians provide powerful tools for enhancing the ecological validity of laboratory studies of attention. The current research borrows a technique from magic to explore the relationship between microsaccades and covert attention under near-natural viewing conditions. We monitored participants’ eye movements as they viewed a magic trick where a coin placed beneath a napkin vanishes and reappears beneath another napkin. Many participants fail to see the coin move from one location to the other the first time around, thanks to the magician’s misdirection. However, previous research was unable to distinguish whether or not participants were fooled based on their eye movements. Here, we set out to determine if microsaccades may provide a window into the efficacy of the magician’s misdirection. In a multi-trial setting, participants monitored the location of the coin (which changed positions in half of the trials), while engaging in a delayed match-to-sample task at a different spatial location. Microsaccades onset times varied with task difficulty, and microsaccade directions indexed the locus of covert attention. Our combined results indicate that microsaccades may be a useful metric of covert attentional processes in applied and ecologically valid settings.
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spelling pubmed-79626802021-04-06 Microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic Barnhart, Anthony S. Costela, Francisco M. Martinez-Conde, Susana Macknik, Stephen L. Goldinger, Stephen D. J Eye Mov Res Research Article The methods of magicians provide powerful tools for enhancing the ecological validity of laboratory studies of attention. The current research borrows a technique from magic to explore the relationship between microsaccades and covert attention under near-natural viewing conditions. We monitored participants’ eye movements as they viewed a magic trick where a coin placed beneath a napkin vanishes and reappears beneath another napkin. Many participants fail to see the coin move from one location to the other the first time around, thanks to the magician’s misdirection. However, previous research was unable to distinguish whether or not participants were fooled based on their eye movements. Here, we set out to determine if microsaccades may provide a window into the efficacy of the magician’s misdirection. In a multi-trial setting, participants monitored the location of the coin (which changed positions in half of the trials), while engaging in a delayed match-to-sample task at a different spatial location. Microsaccades onset times varied with task difficulty, and microsaccade directions indexed the locus of covert attention. Our combined results indicate that microsaccades may be a useful metric of covert attentional processes in applied and ecologically valid settings. Bern Open Publishing 2019-06-28 /pmc/articles/PMC7962680/ /pubmed/33828753 http://dx.doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.7 Text en This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License, ( https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/), which permits unrestricted use and redistribution provided that the original author and source are credited.
spellingShingle Research Article
Barnhart, Anthony S.
Costela, Francisco M.
Martinez-Conde, Susana
Macknik, Stephen L.
Goldinger, Stephen D.
Microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic
title Microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic
title_full Microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic
title_fullStr Microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic
title_full_unstemmed Microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic
title_short Microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic
title_sort microsaccades reflect the dynamics of misdirected attention in magic
topic Research Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7962680/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/33828753
http://dx.doi.org/10.16910/jemr.12.6.7
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