There is a 150ms window between perceiving something and encoding it into memory. Events that fall within this window can be seen but never remembered. Understanding this gate changed how I think about every moment of a performance.
Read MoreMiller's famous cognitive limit means working memory holds 5-9 items. Overload it and earlier items get displaced -- including the secret action. I learned to use this principle deliberately after studying the science behind why complex procedures hide methods in plain sight.
Read MoreEbbinghaus showed that memory decays rapidly -- half of learned information is gone within twenty minutes. In magic, this means the method becomes less traceable with every passing minute. I started designing for the forgetting curve after understanding how quickly audiences lose details.
Read MoreDarwin Ortiz's framework for temporal distance -- separating the secret action from the magical moment in time -- erases the causal link in the spectator's memory. Combined with the forgetting curve, this becomes one of the most powerful design tools in all of magic.
Read MorePrimacy and recency effects mean audiences remember the first and last tricks best. But research shows this advantage fades after about ten days. I explore what this means for show structure, effect selection, and the long-term memory of a magic performance.
Read MoreAudiences don't remember what happened -- they reconstruct a narrative from fragments, filling gaps with assumptions that often make the impossible moment even more impossible. Darwin Ortiz's insight about the spectator's reconstruction process changed how I design every effect.
Read MoreVerbal summaries after an effect can insert false memories. Saying 'you shuffled the cards' when they only cut the deck rewrites their memory of the procedure. I explore the misinformation effect and how it applies to every performance.
Read MoreDerren Brown's insight from Tricks of the Mind: spectators unconsciously fill in details that support an impossible narrative. Combined with research showing twenty-five percent of spectators create entirely false memories, this principle reveals that the real magic happens in the audience's mind after the performance ends.
Read MoreDaOrtiz's chaotic, rapid-fire style isn't sloppiness -- it's a deliberate overload strategy. When spectators can't track what happened, they construct narratives that make the magic even more impossible. I analyze why chaos works through the lens of memory science.
Read MoreResearch shows that gestures during verbal recaps can implant false memories of actions that never happened. A wave of the hand while saying 'you examined everything' creates a memory of examination. I explore how the body becomes a tool for shaping what the audience remembers.
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