Mind Hacks

by Stafford, Tom; Webb, Matt; Johnson, Steven

• ISBN13: 9780596007799
• ISBN10: 0596007795
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 2004-12-01
• Publisher: Oreilly & Associates Inc

Summary

To get where it is, the human brain has made some fascinating design decisions over time. The tricks the brain uses to accomplish all that's required of it leave traces-there are holes in our visual field that we continually cover up, certain sensory inputs that grab our attention faster and more thoroughly than we'd expect. It's not necessary to know the brain inside-out to find out about these tricks. We can expose the traces by making focused probes into cognitive neuroscience, illustrating one-by-one the unexpected features that throw light on how the human brain works. Mind Hacks offers 100 experiments, tips and tricks related to vision, motor skills, attention, cognition, subliminal perception and more!

Author Biography

Tom Stafford has a PhD in Cognitive Neuroscience and is currently a research associate in the Department of Psychology, University of Sheffield. He is also an associate editor of the Psychologist magazine and has previously worked as a freelance writer and researcher for the BBC.

Matt Webb's background is in new media. His freelance activities include an IM interface to Google, which predated the Google API and is included in O Reilly s Google Hacks. He launched a project to find the Web's favorite color that was featured on BBC News Online and national newspapers in the UK. His current job in R&D at the BBC involves these kinds of projects internally, and gives him experience at addressing abstract social and technological ideas to mixed audiences. He was a popular speaker at O Reilly's Emerging Technology Conference in 2004.

Table of Contents

Foreword	xi
Credits	xiii
Preface	xix
Chapter 1. Inside the Brain	1	(31)
1. Find Out How the Brain Works Without Looking Inside	2	(3)
2. Electroencephalogram: Getting the Big Picture with EEGs	5	(1)
3. Positron Emission Tomography: Measuring Activity Indirectly with PET	6	(1)
4. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: The State of the Art	7	(1)
5. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Turn On and Off Bits of the Brain	8	(1)
6. Neuropsychology, the 10% Myth, and Why You Use All of Your Brain	9	(4)
7. Get Acquainted with the Central Nervous System	13	(3)
8. Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes	16	(3)
9. The Neuron	19	(3)
10. Detect the Effect of Cognitive Function on Cerebral Blood Flow	22	(2)
11. Why People Don't Work Like Elevator Buttons	24	(3)
12. Build Your Own Sensory Homunculus	27	(5)
Chapter 2. Seeing	32	(79)
13. Understand Visual Processing	32	(6)
14. See the Limits of Your Vision	38	(4)
15. To See, Act	42	(4)
16. Map Your Blind Spot	46	(4)
17. Glimpse the Gaps in Your Vision	50	(2)
18. When Time Stands Still	52	(3)
19. Release Eye Fixations for Faster Reactions	55	(2)
20. Fool Yourself into Seeing 3D	57	(5)
21. Objects Move, Lighting Shouldn't	62	(4)
22. Depth Matters	66	(6)
23. See How Brightness Differs from Luminance: The Checker Shadow Illusion	72	(4)
24. Create Illusionary Depth with Sunglasses	76	(4)
25. See Movement When All Is Still	80	(3)
26. Get Adjusted	83	(3)
27. Show Motion Without Anything Moving	86	(4)
28. Motion Extrapolation: The "Flash-Lag Effect"	90	(3)
29. Turn Gliding Blocks into Stepping Feet	93	(2)
30. Understand the Rotating Snakes Illusion	95	(6)
31. Minimize Imaginary Distances	101	(5)
32. Explore Your Defense Hardware	106	(2)
33. Neural Noise Isn't a Bug; It's a Feature	108	(3)
Chapter 3. Attention	111	(36)
34. Detail and the Limits of Attention	112	(3)
35. Count Faster with Subitizing	115	(2)
36. Feel the Presence and Loss of Attention	117	(6)
37. Grab Attention	123	(3)
38. Don't Look Back!	126	(3)
39. Avoid Holes in Attention	129	(5)
40. Blind to Change	134	(3)
41. Make Things Invisible Simply by Concentrating (on Something Else)	137	(2)
42. The Brain Punishes Features that Cry Wolf	139	(4)
43. Improve Visual Attention Through Video Games	143	(4)
Chapter 4. Hearing and Language	147	(26)
44. Detect Timing with Your Ears	148	(2)
45. Detect Sound Direction	150	(4)
46. Discover Pitch	154	(2)
47. Keep Your Balance	156	(2)
48. Detect Sounds on the Margins of Certainty	158	(2)
49. Speech Is Broadband Input to Your Head	160	(2)
50. Give Big-Sounding Words to Big Concepts	162	(3)
51. Stop Memory-Buffer Overrun While Reading	165	(4)
52. Robust Processing Using Parallelism	169	(4)
Chapter 5. Integrating	173	(27)
53. Put Timing Information into Sound and Location Information into Light	173	(3)
54. Don't Divide Attention Across Locations	176	(3)
55. Confuse Color Identification with Mixed Signals	179	(3)
56. Don't Go There	182	(4)
57. Combine Modalities to Increase Intensity	186	(2)
58. Watch Yourself to Feel More	188	(2)
59. Hear with Your Eyes: The McGurk Effect	190	(3)
60. Pay Attention to Thrown Voices	193	(2)
61. Talk to Yourself	195	(5)
Chapter 6. Moving	200	(31)
62. The Broken Escalator Phenomenon: When Autopilot Takes Over	200	(3)
63. Keep Hold of Yourself	203	(4)
64. Mold Your Body Schema	207	(3)
65. Why Can't You Tickle Yourself?	210	(5)
66. Trick Half Your Mind	215	(3)
67. Objects Ask to Be Used	218	(3)
68. Test Your Handedness	221	(5)
69. Use Your Right Brain-and Your Left, Too	226	(5)
Chapter 7. Reasoning	231	(20)
70. Use Numbers Carefully	231	(3)
71. Think About Frequencies Rather than Probabilities	234	(5)
72. Detect Cheaters	239	(3)
73. Fool Others into Feeling Better	242	(4)
74. Maintain the Status Quo	246	(5)
Chapter 8. Togetherness	251	(22)
75. Grasp the Gestalt	252	(2)
76. To Be Noticed, Synchronize in Time	254	(4)
77. See a Person in Moving Lights	258	(4)
78. Make Things Come Alive	262	(3)
79. Make Events Understandable as Cause and Effect	265	(4)
80. Act Without Knowing It	269	(4)
Chapter 9. Remembering	273	(43)
81. Bring Stuff to the Front of Your Mind	274	(3)
82. Subliminal Messages Are Weak and Simple	277	(2)
83. Fake Familiarity	279	(4)
84. Keep Your Sources Straight (if You Can)	283	(4)
85. Create False Memories	287	(5)
86. Change Context to Build Robust Memories	292	(3)
87. Boost Memory Using Context	295	(3)
88. Think Yourself Strong	298	(4)
89. Navigate Your Way Through Memory	302	(4)
90. Have an Out-of-Body Experience	306	(2)
91. Enter the Twilight Zone: The Hypnagogic State	308	(3)
92. Make the Caffeine Habit Taste Good	311	(5)
Chapter 10. Other People	316	(29)
93. Understand What Makes Faces Special	317	(3)
94. Signal Emotion	320	(5)
95. Make Yourself Happy	325	(2)
96. Reminisce Hot and Cold	327	(4)
97. Look Where I'm Looking	331	(4)
98. Monkey See, Monkey Do	335	(3)
99. Spread a Bad Mood Around	338	(4)
100. You Are What You Think	342	(3)
Index	345