文/By+Scott+Hillard+譯/宋怡秋

We all like magic and more importantly， we all like to think we can work out magic tricks if we really want to. But as it turns out， even a simple card trick utilizes neuroscientific principles to trick our brain in ways that we usually can't consciously control. So what exactly is wrong with our brain？ Well nothing really， but years of evolution has left it with traits that leave it wide open to be duped1） by magic. For example ...

我們都喜歡魔術(shù)，而且更重要的是，我們都樂于相信，只要我們真的愿意，就能破解魔術(shù)的奧秘。但結(jié)果證明，即便是很簡(jiǎn)單的紙牌魔術(shù)也會(huì)運(yùn)用一些神經(jīng)科學(xué)的原理，使我們的大腦常常不由自主地受到愚弄。那么，我們的大腦究竟出了什么問題？唔，也沒啥問題，只是長(zhǎng)期的進(jìn)化讓我們的大腦形成了一些特性，為魔術(shù)的騙術(shù)花招大開方便之門。譬如以下這些……

Focus

Multitasking is a myth. The human brain simply wasn't designed to focus on two things at once and magicians take full advantage. Our attention is pulled to one thing in particular due to the "moving-spotlight" theory. In short， the theory says that our attention is like a spotlight， highlighting one thing while leaving what surrounds it in the dark. When an item or action is within the spotlight， the parts of the brain involved in processing it work more efficiently， but anything beyond the spotlight is barely processed at all， at least not by our conscious mind. This allows magicians to pull a sleight of hand2） right under our noses. As long as something else is drawing our spotlight， what happens beyond it， to our brain isn't happening at all.

注意的焦點(diǎn)

一心多用是種誤解，人類的大腦天生就不具備同時(shí)專注于兩件事情的功能，而魔術(shù)師則充分利用了這一點(diǎn)。按照“移動(dòng)的聚光燈”理論，我們的注意力會(huì)聚焦在某一特定事物上。簡(jiǎn)言之，這種理論認(rèn)為人們的注意力就像聚光燈一樣，在照亮一個(gè)事物的同時(shí)會(huì)令其周圍的事物處在黑暗之中。當(dāng)某個(gè)物體或行為處在注意中心時(shí)，參與處理這部分信息的那些大腦區(qū)域就會(huì)更加高效，而對(duì)于處于注意中心之外的事物，我們的大腦幾乎完全不予理睬，至少不會(huì)有意識(shí)地去處理。這就讓魔術(shù)師有機(jī)會(huì)在我們眼皮底下?；ㄕ?，因?yàn)橹灰衅渌挛镂宋覀兊淖⒁饬?，那些在我們注意力之外發(fā)生的事情對(duì)我們的大腦而言就等同于根本沒有發(fā)生一樣。

Made Up Memories

The "misinformation effect" occurs when information we are given after an event alters our memory of it. For example， a magician asks you to choose a card from the left side of the deck3） and return it without telling him. Before the razzle-dazzle4） where he guesses your card he may say something like "Now you chose any card you wanted， correct？" And in the heat of the moment5） you will say you did. The truth is you were only given the option of the left side of the deck， but the ambiguous comments from the magician alters how you remember the trick， leaving you with a false memory， making the trick seem perhaps more incredible than it was.

編造記憶

當(dāng)我們?cè)谑潞螳@得的信息改變我們對(duì)該事情的記憶時(shí)，就產(chǎn)生了“錯(cuò)誤信息效應(yīng)”。比如，魔術(shù)師要求你從一副牌的左側(cè)抽出一張，然后把牌放回去，不要告訴他牌面。在他變戲法猜出你選的是哪張牌之前，他可能會(huì)問類似“現(xiàn)在你選了你想要的任意一張牌，對(duì)不對(duì)？”這樣的問題，你會(huì)在一時(shí)激動(dòng)之下不假思索地給出肯定的回答。而事實(shí)上，你的選擇范圍僅僅是那副牌的左邊一側(cè)，但魔術(shù)師說的那些模棱兩可的話改變了你對(duì)魔術(shù)過程的記憶，給你留下了錯(cuò)誤的印象，從而令你覺得這個(gè)魔術(shù)可能更加神乎其神了。endprint

Free Will

When we "pick a card， any card" we are very rarely picking at random， no matter what it seems. It is usually the magician choosing for us， only without our knowledge. In many card tricks the card we apparently choose is "forced"—meaning the magician did something， mental or physical， to make us choose exactly what they wanted us to. But our brain will often overlook or deny this as an option， in favor of free choice. Our brain simply does not want to believe it was forced and will often omit facts that may indicate that it was， instead jumping fully into the false idea that all choices were all our own.

自由意志

當(dāng)我們“選一張牌，隨便哪張”時(shí)，我們很少能真正隨意地去選，不論當(dāng)時(shí)看起來是怎樣的。通常都是魔術(shù)師在替我們選，只不過我們被蒙在鼓里而已。在很多紙牌魔術(shù)中，表面上看似乎是我們自己選的那張牌其實(shí)是“強(qiáng)加”給我們的，也就是說，魔術(shù)師運(yùn)用了某種心理手段或動(dòng)了什么手腳，讓我們剛好選擇了他們希望我們選的那張牌。但我們的大腦常常忽視或否認(rèn)這點(diǎn)，反而更愿意認(rèn)為我們做出的是自主選擇。大腦就是不愿意相信自己是被動(dòng)的，因此常常無視那些指明這一事實(shí)的證據(jù)，反而很快會(huì)完全陷入一切選擇都是自主決定的錯(cuò)誤認(rèn)識(shí)中。

Filling in the Blanks

The "woman sawed in half trick" is old enough that most people know the secret. The head we see in one end of the box doesn't belong to the legs we see at the other. But our brain insists and assumes it does， why？ Because our brain is a sucker6） for continuity. When it sees a head in rough alignment7） with a set of legs it uses past experience to fill in the blank and tell us that obviously a torso8） exists between those two body parts. In many magic tricks an object is partially covered， and our brain uses what it can see to continue the image and fill in the blank. Of course that is exactly what the magician wants.

填補(bǔ)空白

“大鋸活人”是個(gè)老節(jié)目，大多數(shù)人都知曉其奧妙所在。我們?cè)谙渥右欢丝匆姷念^和在箱子另一端看見的腿不屬于同一人，可我們的大腦卻堅(jiān)持認(rèn)為它們是同一人的，這是為什么呢？因?yàn)槲覀兊拇竽X特別鐘愛連續(xù)性。當(dāng)我們看見一個(gè)頭和兩條腿大致成一條直線時(shí)，大腦就會(huì)根據(jù)過去的經(jīng)驗(yàn)填補(bǔ)中間的空白部分，告訴我們這二者之間顯然有軀干相連。許多魔術(shù)在表演中會(huì)將某件物品的一部分遮擋起來，而我們的大腦會(huì)根據(jù)實(shí)際看到的那部分對(duì)畫面加以補(bǔ)充，填補(bǔ)空白。當(dāng)然，這樣就正中了魔術(shù)師的下懷。

Change

Quick， look out the window. What did you see？ Now look again， has anything changed？ If the first time all you saw was your backyard and the second time there was a tiger， well you're probably going to notice. But what if that bird perched in the tree moved slightly？ What if a plant had moved in the wind？ Our brains are susceptible9） to something called "change-blindness"， basically meaning that it's actually quite bad at immediately detecting small changes. It's not necessarily that we don't see them， but more that our brains have trained themselves not to worry about changes that won't greatly affect us. As a result， if we aren't very specifically focusing on something we'll rarely register10） it consciously. Obviously magicians can utilize this to the extreme； we never notice small changes in what's going on until the magician directs our focus to it.endprint

變化

快看窗外?？匆娛裁戳?？再看一眼，有什么變化嗎？如果第一次你只看見了自家后院，而第二次卻看見院子里有只老虎，那么你很可能會(huì)察覺到這種變化。但如果只是樹上的那只鳥稍微動(dòng)了動(dòng)呢？如果只是某棵植物隨風(fēng)擺動(dòng)了一下呢？我們的大腦容易出現(xiàn)一種叫做“變化盲視”的狀況，主要是指大腦實(shí)際上很不善于立刻發(fā)現(xiàn)那些細(xì)微的變化。這未必是由于我們沒看見這些變化，而更多的是因?yàn)榇竽X早已訓(xùn)練自己不去顧慮那些對(duì)我們影響不大的變化。因此，若我們不是去特別留意某事，我們就很少會(huì)有意識(shí)地注意到這件事情。顯然，魔術(shù)師可以將這一點(diǎn)利用到極致：我們從來不會(huì)注意到眼前發(fā)生的微小變化，直到魔術(shù)師將我們的注意力引向那里，我們才會(huì)發(fā)覺。

Your Brain Falls for11） Charm

Many magicians use humor in their acts in an attempt to charm their audience into submission. But this charm and charisma12） is actually having a chemical effect on your brain. It's possible that the simple act of laughing at the magician's terrible puns13） releases oxytocin14）， the bonding15） hormone， which makes acts of cooperation and social interaction feel good. Oxytocin release means you are less likely to be critical of the tricks you're watching and even more likely to miss sleights of hand as your attention will be drawn to the magician's face. So everything， even the terrible puns are part of the trick.

大腦會(huì)為魅力所欺騙

很多魔術(shù)師都會(huì)在表演中融入一些幽默元素，以期俘獲觀眾的心。但他們?cè)诒硌葜猩l(fā)的這種魅力實(shí)際上能夠令觀眾的大腦產(chǎn)生化學(xué)反應(yīng)。即使是因魔術(shù)師所講的蹩腳俏皮話而笑起來這種簡(jiǎn)單行為也可能會(huì)令你釋放出催產(chǎn)素——這是一種有助于形成親密關(guān)系的激素，能使人與人合作或交往時(shí)感到愉快。釋放催產(chǎn)素意味著你在觀看魔術(shù)表演時(shí)可能不會(huì)很苛刻，而且，由于你的注意力被魔術(shù)師的臉?biāo)闵踔量赡軙?huì)沒看見他手上的小動(dòng)作。因此，所有的一切，包括那糟糕的俏皮話，都是魔術(shù)的一部分。

Seeing and Feeling Too Long

You've probably seen any number of Internet illusions where you stare at a black image then stare at a white wall to find the image still exists in your vision. That's called an after image and it's really your brain seeing something for a short time after it's gone. A magician can use this when switching an item from hand to hand； to your brain a coin may appear to be in one hand slightly longer than it was due to an after image， which gives the magician a fraction of a second longer to make the switch. A magician might even use an after image to remove your watch. Squeezing your wrist can leave an after image feeling， leading your brain to believe your watch is still there even after it has been expertly removed.

視覺和觸覺殘留

你也許已經(jīng)在網(wǎng)上看過許多視錯(cuò)覺圖片了，就是先盯著一張黑色的圖像看一會(huì)兒，然后再盯著白墻，此時(shí)就會(huì)發(fā)現(xiàn)眼前仍殘留著剛才的圖像。這種現(xiàn)象被稱作“殘留影像”，背后的真相是物體消失后，其形象仍短暫留存在我們的大腦中。魔術(shù)師把一個(gè)道具在兩手之間交換時(shí)就可以利用這個(gè)原理。由于殘留影像的緣故，在你的大腦看來，硬幣貌似在魔術(shù)師的一只手上停留的時(shí)間比它實(shí)際停留的時(shí)間略長(zhǎng)一點(diǎn)，這就給了魔術(shù)師一瞬間把東西換手。魔術(shù)師甚至能夠利用殘留影像現(xiàn)象把你的手表摘走。手表對(duì)手腕的擠壓會(huì)給你造成一種殘留的觸感，使你的大腦相信手表仍在原處，卻不知它已經(jīng)被魔術(shù)師的巧手摘走了。

1. dupe [dju?p] vt. 欺騙，詐騙，愚弄

2. sleight of hand： 戲法；把戲，花招

3. deck [dek] n. <主美>一副紙牌

4. razzle-dazzle [?r?zl ?d?zl] n. 騙人花招

5. in the heat of the moment： 因激動(dòng)（或生氣）而不經(jīng)思考地（說出）

6. sucker [?s?k?（r）] n. <口>容易入迷的人；非常喜歡……的人

7. alignment [??la?nm?nt] n. 成一直線

8. torso [?t??s??] n. （人體的）軀干

9. susceptible [s??sept?bl] adj. 易受影響的（to）

10. register [?red??st?（r）] vt. <口>意識(shí)到，注意到；使留下印象，記住

11. fall for： <俚>受……的騙，上……的當(dāng)

12. charisma [k??r?zm?] n. 神秘的個(gè)人魅力

13. pun [p?n] n. 雙關(guān)詼諧語，雙關(guān)語

14. oxytocin [??ks??t??s?n] n.【生化】催產(chǎn)素，一種哺乳動(dòng)物激素，由大腦分泌。當(dāng)一個(gè)人的催產(chǎn)素水平升高時(shí)，這個(gè)人即便是對(duì)完全陌生的人也會(huì)變得更加慷慨，更有愛心，因此催產(chǎn)素又被稱為愛情激素或道德分子。

15. bonding [?b?nd??] n. （尤指因經(jīng)常交往所致的）親密關(guān)系形成（如母子、母女之間）endprint