This exploration into the moment-by-moment works of the brain uses
cognitive neuroscience to present experiments, tricks, and tips related
to vision, motor skills, attention, cognition, subliminal perception.
Each "hack" examines specific operations of the brain.
By seeing how the brain responds, you'll learn more
about how the brain is put together.
If you want to find out what's going on in your head,
then Mind Hacks is the key.
Contents
Copyright
Dedication
Preface
Why Mind Hacks?
How to Use This Book
How This Book Is Organized
Conventions Used in This Book
Using Material from This Book
How to Contact Us
Got a Hack?
Chapter 1. Inside the Brain
Section 1.1. Hacks 1-12
Hack 1. Find Out How the Brain Works Without Looking Inside
Hack 2. Electroencephalogram: Getting the Big Picture with EEGs
Hack 3. Positron Emission Tomography: Measuring Activity Indirectly with PET
Hack 4. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: The State of the Art
Hack 5. Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Turn On and Off Bits of the Brain
Hack 6. Neuropsychology, the 10% Myth, and Why You Use All of Your Brain
Hack 7. Get Acquainted with the Central Nervous System
Hack 8. Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes
Hack 9. The Neuron
Hack 10. Detect the Effect of Cognitive Function on Cerebral Blood Flow
Hack 11. Why People Don't Work Like Elevator Buttons
Hack 12. Build Your Own Sensory Homunculus
Chapter 2. Seeing
Section 2.1. Hacks 13-33
Hack 13. Understand Visual Processing
Hack 14. See the Limits of Your Vision
Hack 15. To See, Act
Hack 16. Map Your Blind Spot
Hack 17. Glimpse the Gaps in Your Vision
Hack 18. When Time Stands Still
Hack 19. Release Eye Fixations for Faster Reactions
Hack 20. Fool Yourself into Seeing 3D
Hack 21. Objects Move, Lighting Shouldn't
Hack 22. Depth Matters
Hack 23. See How Brightness Differs from Luminance: The Checker Shadow Illusion
Hack 24. Create Illusionary Depth with Sunglasses
Hack 25. See Movement When All Is Still
Hack 26. Get Adjusted
Hack 27. Show Motion Without Anything Moving
Hack 28. Motion Extrapolation: The "Flash-Lag Effect"
Hack 29. Turn Gliding Blocks into Stepping Feet
Hack 30. Understand the Rotating Snakes Illusion
Hack 31. Minimize Imaginary Distances
Hack 32. Explore Your Defense Hardware
Hack 33. Neural Noise Isnt a Bug; Its a Feature
Chapter 3. Attention
Section 3.1. Hacks 34-43
Hack 34. Detail and the Limits of Attention
Hack 35. Count Faster with Subitizing
Hack 36. Feel the Presence and Loss of Attention
Hack 37. Grab Attention
Hack 38. Don't Look Back!
Hack 39. Avoid Holes in Attention
Hack 40. Blind to Change
Hack 41. Make Things Invisible Simply by Concentrating (on Something Else)
Hack 42. The Brain Punishes Features that Cry Wolf
Hack 43. Improve Visual Attention Through Video Games
Chapter 4. Hearing and Language
Section 4.1. Hacks 44-52
Hack 44. Detect Timing with Your Ears
Hack 45. Detect Sound Direction
Hack 46. Discover Pitch
Hack 47. Keep Your Balance
Hack 48. Detect Sounds on the Margins of Certainty
Hack 49. Speech Is Broadband Input to Your Head
Hack 50. Give Big-Sounding Words to Big Concepts
Hack 51. Stop Memory-Buffer Overrun While Reading
Hack 52. Robust Processing Using Parallelism
Chapter 5. Integrating
Section 5.1. Hacks 53-61
Hack 53. Put Timing Information into Sound and Location Information into Light
Hack 54. Don't Divide Attention Across Locations
Hack 55. Confuse Color Identification with Mixed Signals
Hack 56. Don't Go There
Hack 57. Combine Modalities to Increase Intensity
Hack 58. Watch Yourself to Feel More
Hack 59. Hear with Your Eyes: The McGurk Effect
Hack 60. Pay Attention to Thrown Voices
Hack 61. Talk to Yourself
Chapter 6. Moving
Section 6.1. Hacks 62-69
Hack 62. The Broken Escalator Phenomenon: When Autopilot Takes Over
Hack 63. Keep Hold of Yourself
Hack 64. Mold Your Body Schema
Hack 65. Why Can't You Tickle Yourself?
Hack 66. Trick Half Your Mind
Hack 67. Objects Ask to Be Used
Hack 68. Test Your Handedness
Hack 69. Use Your Right Brainand Your Left, Too
Chapter 7. Reasoning
Section 7.1. Hacks 70-74
Hack 70. Use Numbers Carefully
Hack 71. Think About Frequencies Rather than Probabilities
Hack 72. Detect Cheaters
Hack 73. Fool Others into Feeling Better
Hack 74. Maintain the Status Quo
Chapter 8. Togetherness
Section 8.1. Hacks 75-80
Hack 75. Grasp the Gestalt
Hack 76. To Be Noticed, Synchronize in Time
Hack 77. See a Person in Moving Lights
Hack 78. Make Things Come Alive
Hack 79. Make Events Understandable as Cause and Effect
Hack 80. Act Without Knowing It
Chapter 9. Remembering
Section 9.1. Hacks 81-92
Hack 81. Bring Stuff to the Front of Your Mind
Hack 82. Subliminal Messages Are Weak and Simple
Hack 83. Fake Familiarity
Hack 84. Keep Your Sources Straight (if You Can)
Hack 85. Create False Memories
Hack 86. Change Context to Build Robust Memories
Hack 87. Boost Memory Using Context
Hack 88. Think Yourself Strong
Hack 89. Navigate Your Way Through Memory
Hack 90. Have an Out-of-Body Experience
Hack 91. Enter the Twilight Zone: The Hypnagogic State
Hack 92. Make the Caffeine Habit Taste Good
Chapter 10. Other People
Section 10.1. Hacks 93-100
Hack 93. Understand What Makes Faces Special
Hack 94. Signal Emotion
Hack 95. Make Yourself Happy
Hack 96. Reminisce Hot and Cold
Hack 97. Look Where I'm Looking
Hack 98. Monkey See, Monkey Do
Hack 99. Spread a Bad Mood Around
Hack 100. You Are What You Think
Colophon
Index
Pages: 394
By Tom Stafford, Matt Webb
Batgirl #3 Comics
