The research suggests that an individual’s physical capabilities heavily influence their perception, memory, and ability to predict others’ manual movements.Ĭlive Wilkins, a professional magician and member of the Magic Circle, is an author of the study and an Artist in Residence at Cambridge’s Department of Psychology. This “mirroring” may explain why the French drop worked for some monkeys and not others.Ĭlayton added that the way we move our fingers and thumbs shapes our thinking, assumptions, and the expectations of others. Professor Nicola Clayton FRS, the study’s senior author from Cambridge’s Department of Psychology, said that there is mounting evidence that the same neural motor system is activated when we watch someone else perform an action as when we perform it ourselves. The power drop successfully deceived the vast majority of monkey species. The scientists created their version of the French drop, called the “power drop,” using a hand action that all monkey species could perform. This time, capuchins and squirrel monkeys correctly anticipated the food’s location, while marmosets missed out. To test the effectiveness of misdirection, the team conducted an experiment where they completed the hand-to-hand transfers instead of using the French drop. It is a great way to study blind spots in attention and perception,” he said.Īccording to the Cambridge team’s previous research, birds from the corvid family, specifically Eurasian jays, make similar choices to marmosets when presented with the French drop, despite having no hands at all. “Magicians use intricate techniques to mislead the observer into experiencing the impossible. Garcia-Pelegrin, who has practiced magic for a decade, explained that studying how species of primates experience magic can help understand the evolutionary roots of cognitive shortcomings that leave us exposed to the cunning of magicians. Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, the lead researcher of the study.ĭr. “Whether having the manual capability to produce an action, such as holding an item between finger and thumb, is necessary for predicting the effects of that action in others,” said Dr. The results suggest that sharing a biomechanical ability may be necessary for accurately anticipating the movements of those same limbs in other individuals, even when those apparent accurate predictions end in befuddlement at the hands of an illusionist. They simply chose the hand in which the marshmallow was initially placed, and stuck with it. In the experiment, marmosets were rarely deceived by the French drop (just 6% of the time). Their thumbs align with their fingers to make five equidistant digits, ideal for climbing thick tree trunks. Marmosets, the third species tested, do not have opposable thumbs. Yet, squirrel monkeys were routinely misled by mealworms that seemingly vanished (93% of the time). They can oppose their thumbs but cannot perform a “precision grip” in the same way as capuchins and humans. Squirrel monkeys, on the other hand, are much less dexterous than capuchins, with limited thumb rotation but still familiar with a hidden thumb interacting with fingers. In the experiment, capuchins were repeatedly fooled by the French drop, selecting the empty hand 81% of the time. They have opposable thumbs and can waggle each finger, allowing them to perform a “precision grip” between thumb and forefingers. Capuchins, known for their dexterity, use stone tools to crack nuts in the wild.
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