Abstract

Cognitive illusions reveal a number of fascinating features about the psychology and biology of the mind; not just perception but also mental time travel, the ability to remember the past and anticipate the future. Magic effects also illuminate some important things about Theory of Mind, the ability to assess the thoughts of others, both on the part of the audience and on the part of the magician. In this talk I will evaluate the extent to which corvids, known for their impressive cognitive abilities, exploit such principles in their natural caching behaviour~ i.e., their ability to hide food from the prying eyes of their competitors and protect their caches from being pilfered. I will also investigate whether and to what extent these birds are fooled by human magic effects. Finally, I will discuss what this approach might reveal about the intersection between the ability to manually produce an action, and the ability to anticipate the actions of others: for sleight of hand magic capitalises on the observer’s predictions of specific manual movements, particularly those of the hands.