(see also peripheral vision; visual processing; visual system)
body schema and,
End Notes
constraints in,
Seeing: Hacks 13–33
dominance of,
Put Timing Information into Sound and Location Information into Light
feeling more and,
How It Works
gaps in,
See Also
,
End Notes
,
End Note
hearing with eyes,
How It Works
hemispheres and,
Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes
,
Use Your Right Brain — and Your Left, Too
location and,
How It Works
location information and,
Integrating: Hacks 53–61
neuron atrophy and,
Neuropsychology, the 10% Myth, and Why You Use All of Your Brain
as postdictive,
How It Works
processing,
How It Works
proprioceptive information and,
In Action
thrown voices and,
Pay Attention to Thrown Voices
touch and,
How It Works
,
How It Works
visual processing,
Inside the Brain: Hacks 1–12

visual cortex

hemispheres and,
Use Your Right Brain — and Your Left, Too
motion and depth,
How It Works
movement and,
End Notes
neuron speed in,
In Real Life
occipital lobe and,
Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes
optic chiasm and,
Understand Visual Processing
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 and,
Behind the Eyes
,
Enter the Visual Cortex

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
overview,
Seeing: Hacks 13–33
right hemisphere and,
How It Works
seeing people,
See a Person in Moving Lights
shadows and,
Fool Yourself into Seeing 3D
sound and,
Hearing and Language: Hacks 44–52
tricking the mind,
End Notes

visual selective attention,
In Action

visual short-term memory (VSTM),
How It Works

visual system

causal relationships and,
Make Events Understandable as Cause and Effect
,
How It Works
illusionary depth and,
In Real Life
inferring motion,
Objects Move, Lighting Shouldn’t
overview,
Understand Visual Processing
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

vos Savant, Marilyn,
Think About Frequencies Rather than Probabilities

VSTM (visual short-term memory),
How It Works

Wada test,
In Action

Waits, Tom,
Navigate Your Way Through Memory

weather forecasts,
How It Works

Wegner, Daniel,
In Action
,
How It Works

Wernicke, Carl,
Neuropsychology, the 10% Myth, and Why You Use All of Your Brain

Wernicke’s area,
Neuropsychology, the 10% Myth, and Why You Use All of Your Brain

wheels, movement of,
How It Works

white matter,
Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes

withdrawal reflex,
Get Acquainted with the Central Nervous System

Wodtke, Christina,
How It Works

women

directions and,
How It Works
exemplar activation and,
How It Works
expressiveness of,
Mimicry
strokes and,
Speech Is Broadband Input to Your Head

words

behavior and,
In Action
,
You Are What You Think
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
method of loci and,
Navigate Your Way Through Memory
moods and,
End Notes
,
In Action
morphemes and,
Speech Is Broadband Input to Your Head
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

writing,
Change Context to Build Robust Memories

Yarrow, Keilan,
In Action

yohimbine,
Tale 2

Yue, Guang,
Think Yourself Strong

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

Mind Hacks™
by Tom Stafford and Matt Webb

Published by O’Reilly Media, Inc., 1005 Gravenstein Highway North, Sebastopol, CA
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Editor:	Rael Dornfest
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Printing History:

November 2004:

First Edition.

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The technologies discussed in this publication, the limitations on these technologies
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