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This thesis is concerned with the psychology of magic and illusion. In particular it is focused on three illusions, which can be conceptualized as types of invisibility: (1) Illusions of omission - failures to see, (2) Illusions of commission - seeing things that are not really present, and (3) metacognitive illusions - people's false beliefs about their own cognitive and perceptual systems. The work presented in this thesis is set out to explore these illusions through behavioural visual experiments inspired by sleight-of-hand magic tricks. Across three distinct paradigms using stimuli ranging in complexity from static line drawings, to recorded videos, to live events, I demonstrate that manipulations of observers' expectations and attentional set can result in perceptions of visual events that are variously accurate representations, illusions of omission, or illusions of commission. I also demonstrate that these illusions are often associated with failures of visual metacognition, in that they are generally considered to be surprising and counterintuitive. In addition to these empirical elements of the project, I also consider historical and contemporary connections between experimental psychology and magic tricks. I show that, in some instances, magicians' misdirection techniques anticipated developments by experimental psychology by hundreds of years, and that the idea of investigating the mechanisms of magic tricks and illusions played a key role in the development of experimental psychology as a scientific discipline. Through this combination of historical analyses novel experiments, I show that the integration of magic and experimental psychology has a great potential to drive future research in human cognition and perception.

Thesis (Au. D.)--Missouri State University, 2008. / "May 2008." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 49-53). Also available online.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 82-98). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (M.A.) - Carleton University, 2005. / Includes bibliographical references (p. 48-52). Also available in electronic format on the Internet.

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Notre Dame, 2009. / Thesis directed by Daniel K. Lapsley for the Department of Psychology. "June 2009." Includes bibliographical references (leaves 66-74).

Thesis (Ph. D.)--University of Washington, 2000. / Vita. Includes bibliographical references (leaves 76-81).

Thesis (M. S.)--Psychology, Georgia Institute of Technology, 2006. / Rogers, Wendy, Committee Member ; Walker, Bruce, Committee Member ; Catrambone, Richard, Committee Chair.

Thesis (Ph.D.)--Brandeis University, 2010. / "UMI no: 3390524." MICROFILM COPY ALSO AVAILABLE IN THE UNIVERSITY ARCHIVES. Includes bibliographical references.

Adverse listening conditions can be a hindrance to communication, but humans are remarkably adept at overcoming them. Research has begun to uncover the cognitive and behavioural mechanisms behind this perceptual plasticity, but we still do not fully understand the reasons for variability in individual responses. The research reported in this thesis addressed several factors which would further this understanding. Study 1 examined the role of cognitive ability in recognition of, and perceptual adaptation to, accented speech. A measure of executive function predicted greater and more rapid perceptual adaptation. Vocabulary knowledge predicted overall recognition of the accented speech, and mediated the relationship between working memory and recognition accuracy. Study 2 compared recognition of, and perceptual adaptation to, accented speech with and without audiovisual cues. The presence of audiovisual cues improved recognition of the accented speech in noise, but not perceptual adaptation. Study 3 investigated when perceivers make use of visual speech cues during recognition of, and perceptual adaptation to, audiovisual noise-vocoded speech. Listeners’ eye gaze was analysed over time and related to their performance. The percentage and length of fixations on the speaker’s mouth increased during recognition of individual sentences, while the length of fixations on the mouth decreased as perceivers adapted to the noise-vocoded speech over the course of the experiment. Longer fixations on the speaker’s mouth were related to better speech recognition. Results demonstrate that perceptual plasticity of unfamiliar speech is driven by cognitive processes, but can also be modified by the modality of speech (audiovisual or audio-only). Behavioural responses, such as eye gaze, are also related to our ability to respond to adverse conditions. Speech recognition and perceptual adaptation were differentially related to the factors in each study and therefore likely reflect different processes; these measures should therefore both be considered in studies investigating listeners’ response to adverse conditions. Overall, the research adds to our understanding of the mechanisms and behaviours involved in perceptual plasticity in adverse listening conditions.