Profiles
Dr Gustav Kuhn
Associate Professor in Psychology
School of Psychology (Faculty of Health)
Biography
Biography
1996 – 1999 BSc in Psychology – Sussex University
2000 – 2003 DPhil in Psychology – Sussex University
2004 – 2005 Visiting fellow, Queens University
2005 – 2006 Postdoctoral Research Associate, Durham University
2006 – 2009 Wolfson Research Fellow
2009 – 2011 Lecturer, Brunel University
2011 – 2023 Senior Lecturer/Reader, Goldsmiths, University of London
2023 - Associate Professor, University of Plymouth, 2023
Professional membership
Teaching
Teaching
Teaching interests
PSYC604 - The Misdirected Mind
Research
Research
Research interests
The MAGIC lab applies an interdisciplinary approach to studying human behaviour and cognition. Our efforts include, but are not limited to using magic to study a wide range of psychological questions, around consciousness, attention, perception, magical beliefs, deception, free will… We strongly encourage an interdisciplinary approach that allows us to bridge the gap between the real world knowledge acquired by magicians and the sciences (Psychology, Neuroscience, Computer Science…). We use a wide range of experimental methodologies, such as behavioural and neurophysiology measure, eye tracking, and natural observation to study behaviour and cognition in laboratory and real-world settings.
Publications
Publications
Key publications
Key publications are highlighted
Journals
Articles
(2023) 'Experiencing the improbable: How does the objective probability of a magic trick occurring influence a spectator’s experience?' Decision , DOI Open access
(2023) 'A balanced view of impossible aesthetics: An empirical investigation of how impossibility relates to our enjoyment of magic tricks' i-Perception 14, (1) 204166952211425-204166952211425 , DOI
(2022) 'Experiencing misinformation: The effect of pre-exposure warnings and debunking on psychic beliefs' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 76, (6) 1445-1456 , DOI
(2022) 'Mastering the impossible: Piloting an easier-than-expected magic intervention that acts as a source of self-efficacy' Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice 9, (3) 243-256 , DOI
(2022) 'Supporting the psychological health of our students: An arts-based community magic workshop for adapting to university life' Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice 9, (3) 285-303 , DOI
(2022) 'Too perfect to be good? An investigation of magicians’ Too Perfect Theory' PeerJ 10, , DOI Open access
(2022) 'Misdirection – Magic, Psychology and its Application' Science & Technology Studies 35, (2) 13-29 , DOI
(2021) 'Differential Effects of Experience and Information Cues on Metacognitive Judgments About Others’ Change Detection Abilities' i-Perception 12, (4) 204166952110392-204166952110392 , DOI
(2021) 'Mind Control Tricks: Magicians’ Forcing and Free Will' Trends in Cognitive Sciences 25, (5) 338-341 , DOI
(2021) 'Reply to Cole: Magic and deception—do magicians mislead science?' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 118, (3) , DOI
(2020) 'The magician’s choice: Providing illusory choice and sense of agency with the equivoque forcing technique' Journal of Experimental Psychology: General 150, (7) 1358-1372 , DOI
(2020) 'A psychologically based taxonomy of Magicians’ forcing Techniques: How magicians influence our choices, and how to use this to study psychological mechanisms' Consciousness and Cognition 86, 103038-103038 , DOI
(2020) 'Talking to the Dead in the Classroom: How a Supposedly Psychic Event Impacts Beliefs and Feelings' Psychological Reports 124, (6) 2427-2452 , DOI
(2020) 'Nothing else matters: Video games create sustained attentional selection away from task-irrelevant features' Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 82, (8) 3907-3919 , DOI
(2020) 'Influencing choices with conversational primes: How a magic trick unconsciously influences card choices' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 117, (30) 17675-17679 , DOI
(2020) 'The apparent action causation: Using a magician forcing technique to investigate our illusory sense of agency over the outcome of our choices' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 73, (11) 1784-1795 , DOI
(2020) 'Subtly encouraging more deliberate decisions: using a forcing technique and population stereotype to investigate free will' Psychological Research 85, (4) 1380-1390 , DOI Open access
(2020) 'Forcing you to experience wonder: Unconsciously biasing people’s choice through strategic physical positioning' Consciousness and Cognition 80, 102902-102902 , DOI
(2020) 'Magic on the Menu: Where Are All the Magical Food and Beverage Experiences?' Foods 9, (3) 257-257 , DOI
(2019) 'Are Women Perceived as Worse Magicians Than Men? Gender Bias When Evaluating Magic Tricks' Social Psychological Bulletin 14, (3) , DOI
(2019) 'The crossroads of magic and wellbeing: A review of wellbeing-focused magic programs, empirical studies, and conceivable theories' International Journal of Wellbeing 9, (2) 41-65 , DOI
(2019) 'Studying “natural” eye movements in an “unnatural” social environment: The influence of social activity, framing, and sub-clinical traits on gaze aversion' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 72, (8) 1913-1925 , DOI
(2018) 'Fake science: The impact of pseudo-psychological demonstrations on people’s beliefs in psychological principles' PLOS ONE 13, (11) e0207629-e0207629 , DOI
(2018) 'Magic Performances – When Explained in Psychic Terms by University Students' Frontiers in Psychology 9, , DOI
(2018) 'Why are you looking at me? It’s because I’m talking, but mostly because I’m staring or not doing much' Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 81, (1) 109-118 , DOI
(2018) 'Magical Potential: Why Magic Performances Should be Used to Explore the Psychological Factors Contributing to Human Belief Formation' Integrative Psychological and Behavioral Science 53, (1) 126-137 , DOI
(2018) 'Exploiting failures in metacognition through magic: Visual awareness as a source of visual metacognition bias' Consciousness and Cognition 65, 152-168 , DOI
(2018) 'The Flushtration Count Illusion: Attribute substitution tricks our interpretation of a simple visual event sequence' British Journal of Psychology 109, (4) 850-861 , DOI
(2018) 'It is magic! How impossible solutions prevent the discovery of obvious ones?' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 71, (12) 2481-2487 , DOI
(2018) 'Own-age biases in adults’ and children’s joint attention: Biased face prioritization, but not gaze following!' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 71, (2) 372-379 , DOI
(2018) 'The magic hand: Plasticity of mental hand representation' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 71, (11) 2314-2324 , DOI
(2017) 'How Has the Emergence of Digital Culture Affected Professional Magic?' Professions and Professionalism 7, (3) e1957-e1957 , DOI
(2017) 'Don't Get Misdirected! Differences in Overt and Covert Attentional Inhibition between Children and Adults' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 17470218.2016.1-17470218.2016.1 , DOI
(2016) 'Exercise-Induced Fatigue and Caffeine Supplementation Affect Psychomotor Performance but Not Covert Visuo-Spatial Attention' PLOS ONE 11, (10) e0165318-e0165318 , DOI
(2016) 'Oculomotor atypicalities in Developmental Coordination Disorder' Developmental Science 21, (1) , DOI
(2016) 'Editorial: The Psychology of Magic and the Magic of Psychology' Frontiers in Psychology 7, , DOI
(2016) 'Fatigue related impairments in oculomotor control are prevented by caffeine' Scientific Reports 6, (1) , DOI
(2016) 'Real Person Interaction in Visual Attention Research' European Psychologist 21, (2) 141-149 , DOI
(2015) 'The Vanishing Ball Illusion: A new perspective on the perception of dynamic events' Cognition 148, 64-70 , DOI
(2015) 'Self-construal priming selectively modulates the scope of visual attention' Frontiers in Psychology 6, , DOI
(2015) 'Don’t be fooled! Attentional responses to social cues in a face-to-face and video magic trick reveals greater top-down control for overt than covert attention' Cognition 146, 136-142 , DOI
(2015) 'Priming psychic and conjuring abilities of a magic demonstration influences event interpretation and random number generation biases' Frontiers in Psychology 5, , DOI
(2014) 'Expertise among professional magicians: an interview study' Frontiers in Psychology 5, , DOI
(2014) 'Age-related decline in the reflexive component of overt gaze following' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 68, (6) 1073-1081 , DOI
(2014) 'Telling people where to look in a soccer-based decision task: A nomothetic approach' JOURNAL OF EYE MOVEMENT RESEARCH 7, (2)
(2013) 'Eye Movement Difficulties in Autism Spectrum Disorder: Implications for Implicit Contextual Learning' Autism Research 6, (3) 177-189 , DOI
(2013) 'Personal Social Networks and the Cultivation of Expertise in Magic: An Interview Study' Vocations and Learning 6, (3) 347-365 , DOI
(2011) 'Developmental Changes in the Control of Saccadic Eye Movements in Response to Directional Eye Gaze and Arrows' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 64, (10) 1919-1929 , DOI
(2011) 'Non-transient luminance changes do not capture attention' Attention, Perception, & Psychophysics 73, (5) 1407-1421 , DOI
(2011) 'Potential social interactions are important to social attention' Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 108, (14) 5548-5553 , DOI
(2010) 'Increased gaze following for fearful faces. It depends on what you’re looking for!' Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 18, (1) 89-95 , DOI
(2010) 'Misdirected by the gap: The relationship between inattentional blindness and attentional misdirection' Consciousness and Cognition 20, (2) 432-436 , DOI
(2010) 'How Magic Changes Our Expectations About Autism' Psychological Science 21, (10) 1487-1493 , DOI
(2010) 'What the experimenter's prime tells the observer's brain' Attention, Perception & Psychophysics 72, (5) 1367-1376 , DOI
(2009) 'Eye movements affirm: automatic overt gaze and arrow cueing for typical adults and adults with autism spectrum disorder' Experimental Brain Research 201, (2) 155-165 , DOI
(2009) 'You look where I look! Effect of gaze cues on overt and covert attention in misdirection' Visual Cognition 17, (6-7) 925-944 , DOI
(2009) 'Appearance matters: Attentional orienting by new objects in the precueing paradigm' Visual Cognition 17, (5) 755-776 , DOI
(2009) 'Misdirection, attention and awareness: Inattentional blindness reveals temporal relationship between eye movements and visual awareness' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 63, (1) 136-146 , DOI
(2009) 'Attentional capture by object appearance and disappearance' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 63, (1) 147-159 , DOI
(2009) 'Look away! Eyes and arrows engage oculomotor responses automatically' Attention, Perception & Psychophysics 71, (2) 314-327 , DOI
(2009) 'The Prioritization of Feature Singletons in the Change Detection Paradigm' Experimental Psychology 56, (2) 134-146 , DOI
(2008) 'Imaging the impossible: An fMRI study of impossible causal relationships in magic tricks' NeuroImage 45, (3) 1033-1039 , DOI
(2008) 'Misdirection in magic: Implications for the relationship between eye gaze and attention' Visual Cognition 16, (2-3) 391-405 , DOI
(2007) 'Onset of illusory figures attenuates change blindness' Psychonomic Bulletin & Review 14, (5) 939-943 , DOI
(2007) 'The influence of eye-gaze and arrow pointing distractor cues on voluntary eye movements' Perception & Psychophysics 69, (6) 966-971 , DOI
(2006) 'Differences in the types of musical regularity learnt in incidental- and intentional-learning conditions' Quarterly Journal of Experimental Psychology 59, (10) 1725-1744 , DOI
(2005) 'Implicit Learning of Nonlocal Musical Rules: Implicitly Learning More Than Chunks' Journal of Experimental Psychology: Learning, Memory, and Cognition 31, (6) 1417-1432 , DOI
Chapters
(2022) 'What can Magic Reveal About the Brain' Encyclopedia of Behavioral Neuroscience, 2nd edition Elsevier 597-604 , DOI
(2011) 'Communicating structure, affect, and movement' Language and Music as Cognitive Systems Oxford University Press 156-168 , DOI
Conference Papers
(2010) 'The influence of attention on the negative compatibility effect' 1152-1152
(2010) 'The role of attention in a masked-prime effect' 81-81
(2010) 'The importance of being present: The effect of a real or videotaped person on visual attention' 543-543