Mind Hacks™: Tips & Tools for Using Your Brain (54 page)

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Authors: Tom Stafford,Matt Webb

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BOOK: Mind Hacks™: Tips & Tools for Using Your Brain
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U
unconditioned response,
How It Works
unconditioned stimulus,
How It Works
unconscious plagiarism,
How It Works
V
V1 (visual cortex),
Behind the Eyes
V2 (visual cortex),
Enter the Visual Cortex
V3 (visual cortex),
Enter the Visual Cortex
van Knippenberg, Ad,
How It Works
velocity
object animacy and,
How It Works
Pulfrich Effect and,
In Real Life
vestibular system and,
In Action
Velten Procedure,
In Action
,
In Action
verb phrases,
End Notes
,
How It Works
verbal fluency,
In Action
veridical memory system,
In Real Life
vertigo,
In Action
vestibular system,
End Notes
,
In Action
vibration
crossed hands and,
In Action
fundamental of sound wave and,
End Notes
(see also peripheral vision; visual processing; visual system)
body schema and,
End Notes
constraints in,
Seeing: Hacks 13–33
feeling more and,
How It Works
hearing with eyes,
How It Works
location and,
How It Works
location information and,
Integrating: Hacks 53–61
as postdictive,
How It Works
processing,
How It Works
proprioceptive information and,
In Action
visual cortex
motion and depth,
How It Works
movement and,
End Notes
neuron speed in,
In Real Life
optic lobe and,
In Action
parvocellular pathway,
End Notes
processing and,
How It Works
retina and,
Cerebral Lobes
signals and,
In Action
touch and,
How It Works
visual processing,
How It Works
(see also vision; visual system)
dizziness and,
In Action
dual-stream theory of,
Part 2
gestalt principles and,
How It Works
grabbing attention and,
How It Works
object tracking,
In Action
right hemisphere and,
How It Works
tricking the mind,
End Notes
visual selective attention,
In Action
visual short-term memory (VSTM),
How It Works
visual system
illusionary depth and,
In Real Life
saccadic suppression and,
In Action
subliminal perception and,
In Real Life
visuomotor feedback loop,
Think Yourself Strong
voluntary behavior,
How It Works
voluntary focus,
Attention: Hacks 34–43
VSTM (visual short-term memory),
How It Works
W
Wada test,
In Action
weather forecasts,
How It Works
Wegner, Daniel,
In Action
,
How It Works
wheels, movement of,
How It Works
Wodtke, Christina,
How It Works
women
directions and,
How It Works
exemplar activation and,
How It Works
expressiveness of,
Mimicry
words
critical lure,
In Action
fluency and,
In Action
forgetting,
In Real Life
left hemisphere and,
How It Works
meaning and,
In Action
memory of,
In Action
onomatopoeic,
How It Works
phrases and,
End Notes
priming and,
In Action
recalling names and,
Boost Memory Using Context
stria terminalis and,
How It Works
Y
Yarrow, Keilan,
In Action
yohimbine,
Tale 2
Z
zygomatic muscles,
Make Yourself Happy
About the Authors

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.

Colophon

Our look is the result of reader comments, our own experimentation, and feedback from
distribution channels. Distinctive covers complement our distinctive approach to technical
topics, breathing personality and life into potentially dry subjects.

The tool on the cover of
Mind Hacks
is an incandescent light bulb.
While many assume that Thomas Alva Edison invented the light bulb in 1879, Edison’s actual
achievement was to advance the design of the light bulb from a patent he purchased in 1875
from Canadian inventors Henry Woodward and Matthew Evans. Edison’s improvement was to place a
carbon filament in a vacuum bulb, which then burned for 40 hours. An English chemist, Humphrey
Davy, invented the first electric light — an arc lamp — by connecting two wires to a battery and
attaching a strip of charcoal in the middle of the circuit. Other inventors continued to make
various incremental improvements in such areas as the filaments and the process for creating a
vacuum in the bulb, but in 1879, Edison developed a triple threat: a carbon filament, lower
voltage, and an improved vacuum in the bulb.

In 1882, Pearl Street Station, in New York City, was the first central
electricity-generating station constructed to support the light bulb invention. Although the
alternating-current method of generating electricity proposed by Nikola Tesla proved to be the
superior technical solution, Edison was engaged in a battle for control of America’s electric
infrastructure. Edison declared that his direct current system was safe and that alternating
current was a deadly menace, which he publicly demonstrated for years by using alternating
current to electrocute dogs and cats.

But in 1893, when alternating current was used at the Chicago World’s Fair to light
100,000 incandescent lightbulbs, the nearly 27 million people who attended the Columbian
Exposition saw the safe and impressive demonstration of that technology. The event signaled
the demise of direct current systems in the United States.

Sarah Sherman was the production editor and proofreader for
Mind
Hacks
, and Norma Emory was the copyeditor. Meghan Lydon provided production
assistance. Mary Anne Weeks Mayo and Emily Quill provided quality control. Lucie Haskins wrote
the index.

Hanna Dyer designed the cover of this book, based on a series design by Edie Freedman. The
cover image is an original photograph. Clay Fernald produced the cover layout with QuarkXPress
4.1 using Adobe’s Helvetica Neue and ITC Garamond fonts.

David Futato designed the interior layout. This book was converted by Julie Hawks to
FrameMaker 5.5.6 with a format conversion tool created by Erik Ray, Jason McIntosh, Neil
Walls, and Mike Sierra that uses Perl and XML technologies. The text font is Linotype Birka;
the heading font is Adobe Helvetica Neue Condensed; and the code font is LucasFont’s TheSans
Mono Condensed. The illustrations that appear in the book were produced by Robert Romano and
Jessamyn Read using Macromedia FreeHand MX and Adobe Photoshop CS. This colophon was written
by Reg Aubry.

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Mind Hacks™: Tips & Tools for Using Your Brain
Tom Stafford
Matt Webb
Editor
Rael Dornfest

Copyright © 2010 O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Mind Hacks™
by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb

All rights reserved.

Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA
95472.

O’Reilly books may be purchased for educational, business, or sales promotional use.
Online editions are also available for most titles (
safari.oreilly.com
). For more information, contact our corporate/institutional sales department:
(800) 998-9938 or
[email protected]
.

Editor:

Rael Dornfest

Series Editor:

Rael Dornfest

Executive Editor:

Dale Dougherty

Production Editor:

Sarah Sherman

Cover Designer:

Hanna Dyer

Interior Designer:

David Futato

Printing History:

November 2004:

First Edition.

Nutshell Handbook, the Nutshell Handbook logo, and the O’Reilly logo are registered
trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc. The
Hacks
series designations,
Mind Hacks
, the image of a light bulb, and related trade dress are
trademarks of O’Reilly Media, Inc.

Many of the designations used by manufacturers and sellers to distinguish their products
are claimed as trademarks. Where those designations appear in this book, and O’Reilly Media,
Inc. was aware of a trademark claim, the designations have been printed in caps or initial
caps.

While every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this book, the publisher and
authors assume no responsibility for errors or omissions, or for damages resulting from the
use of the information contained herein.

The technologies discussed in this publication, the limitations on these technologies
that technology and content owners seek to impose, and the laws actually limiting the use of
these technologies are constantly changing. Thus, some of the hacks described in this
publication may not work, may cause unintended harm to systems on which they are used, or
may not be consistent with applicable user agreements. Your use of these hacks is at your
own risk, and O’Reilly Media, Inc. disclaims responsibility for any damage or expense
resulting from their use. In any event, you should take care that your use of these hacks
does not violate any applicable laws, including copyright laws.

This book uses Otabind™, a durable and flexible lay-flat
binding.

[M]                                                                                     [1/10]

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95472

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