Haunted Histories of Experimental Psychology: A Re-Examination of Hodgson and Davey’s Mal-Observation Report In 1887, psychical researchers Richard Hodgson and S. J. Davey published a study that revealed counterintuitive aspects of human cognition: How healthy, sober, honest observers of events can be pro...

New paper publication (Open Access): About magic, eye-witness testimony, and illusory paranormal phenomena www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

A Spirited Challenge Accepted: William Marriott, the Crisis of Evidence, and the Sunday Express Photographic Test from 1921 During the opening decades of the twentieth century, William Hope was championed by British spiritualists as a leading psychic photographer within their community. He was said to be able to capture...

I'm delighted to share my latest article: 'A Spirited Challenge Accepted.' If you're interested in spirit photos and print media, this is the article for you!

Special thanks to @emmamerkling.bsky.social who digitized so much of the archival material for me.

www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10....

Pic of the allegedly genuine Stone of Destiny inside the Arlington Pub in Glasgow

Cool! I need to check this out next time I'm up north. Also, if you want a low security Stone of Scone experience, you should visit the Arlington in Glasgow. It's sitting right at a table in the pub (kinda). You can touch it. Their version's *almost* definitely a forgary, but you never know!

The book contains original texts, a collection of historical images, and commentary by me about the story behind the experiment and how their results connect to modern notions about reconstructive memory, inattentional blindness, anomalistic psyc, and the 'the science of magic'

I teamed with Marc Hartzman of Curious Publications to reproduce two old manuscripts that describe a study from the late 1800s where the experimenters used magic tricks to simulate the experience of spiritualist seances and measure how witnesses misperceived and misremembered the events.

New Book Announcement! My latest releases this week- Full info on how to order here: www.curiouspublications.com/portfolio-1/...

In case you need any last minute Christmas gift ideas. Give it to anyone who either believes or refuses to believe that people can fall for a robot or an AI companion.

No worries- Plenty of time in the future, like I said I'm gonna try to be a bit more disciplined about the timing on these

Glad Lucia from SoMA + SoM News: Digital Advent Calendar, Papers, and Books

New SoMA Newsletter: Glad Lucia! A digital advent calendar + new papers and books
open.substack.com/pub/scienceo...

Open PhD Position at Lund University that could accommodate a Science of Magic Project (Deadline Dec 20)
open.substack.com/pub/scienceo...

Digital Futures Institute explores AI's impact on literature and connection to magic The Digital Futures Institute presented two panels at the King’s Festival of Artificial Intelligence.

Nice write up of my event @kingscollegelondon.bsky.social w/@drkatedevlin.bsky.social, where we discussed how the science of magic/illusion can be applied to psychological research on AI and neurotechnology
www.kcl.ac.uk/news/digital...

Magic, Minds, and the Mysteries of AI Step into a world where magic and technology collide in a fascinating exploration of AI and deception.

Then on Friday evening, find out about the link between magic, brains and AI with @mattltompkins.bsky.social:
www.kcl.ac.uk/events/magic...

New SoMA Newsletter: Happy Maundy Thursday! Ft. Witches, Tarot Exhibits, New Publications, A Book Review, Podcasts, and Philosophy Debates: open.substack.com/pub/scienceo...

My review of 'Conjuring The Spirit World: Art, Magic, and Mediums' is live on @spr1882.bsky.social (w/thanks to @nemomorck.bsky.social for inviting me to write this) spr.ac.uk/node/19583

I currently have two fully-funded PhD opportunities in my lab - both providing a chance to work on the incredible LEAF data set that we have been collecting the last couple of years (220 children followed longitudinally from 10-30 months on measures of attention and early EF). Please share!

Great- SoMA one will work fine (otherwise my personal one is contact@matt-tompkins.com)

That'd be great! I did find your chapter when I was googling around it- but ironically couldn't figure out a copyright free way to share it (also I should really pick up that book)

Science of Magic Association January Newsletter open.substack.com/pub/scienceo...

Maybe you already heard this, but episode 3 is a major highlight- takes some very fun liberties with the original plot (I think it's slightly more fun/surprising if you remember the game bit, but is great tv, either way)

Edgar being festive

New SoMA Newsletter: Post Conference Updates and Eyeball Gouging Celebrations open.substack.com/pub/scienceo...

And we're off! The Science of Magic Conference has begun. @mattltompkins.bsky.social leads off with a historical overview of interaction between science and magic. #SoMA24

I was too distracted to make social media posts yesterday. It was an amazing first day of the Science of Magic Conference! Here's some documentation. #SoMA24

I was trying to think of my favourite HP page. It could be this.
It discusses infrasound creating visual distortions, we use the Herman grid illusion to create said visual distortions, the effect is entirely tied into the medium and it has this elegant (if I do say so), spooky astronaut sequence.

SoMA September Newsletter Conference Updates, New Books, a Paper, & a Podcast

SoMA September Newsletter: Conference Updates, New Books, a Paper, and a Podcast
open.substack.com/pub/scienceo...

Likewise!

A poster announcing The Science of Magic Association Conference in Las Vegas that takes place in Las Vegas from 12-13 November 2024. The image is in the style of a Golden Age magic poster, featuring a stylized Las Vegas skyline- depicting the High Roller, The 'Fabulous' Las Vegas sign, the Luxor pyramid the Eiffel Tower, The Strat, The Golden Nugget, and the Vegas Sphere, which is drawn to look like a human brain. A giant white gloved hand grasps the brain sphere between it's first finger and thumb. Four red imps surround the hand. One imp is springing cards between it's hands, another is taking notes on an old-fashioned school slate, a third imp in a lab coat and googles examines a test tube, and fourth imp presents three linking rings.

Delighted to debut the new poster for our upcoming conference: scienceofmagicassoc.org/home#confere...
(Art created by the amazing Kyla Moffatt kylamoffatt.com)

Cognition folks: I REALLY love teaching about the mental imagery debate. Even though I tend to live on the propositional code side of the debate, much of my discussion is about analog code. I've never found a reading that focuses on propositional code and that's accessible to undergrads. Any help?

Reminder about the Early Registration Deadline for SoMA 2024 + A Preview of Coming Attractions Hi all,

Reminder about the Early Registration Deadline for SoMA 2024 + A Preview of Coming Attractions (i.e. all confirmed presenter abstracts)

You have until August 17 to take advantage of the discount!

t.co/Aw2DnQJKsQ

DEADLINE Reminder: SoMA 2024 Conference Presentation Proposals Due July 14! open.substack.com/pub/scienceo...