It’s got to be a great day as a scientist when you’re called upon to perform magic tricks for monkeys. That’s what the authors of a 2023 study found themselves doing when they used “The French Drop” as a tool for studying an animal’s capacity to anticipate another’s actions. The rest of this article is behind a paywall. Please sign in or subscribe to access the full content.

“ Magicians use intricate techniques to mislead the observer into experiencing the impossible,” said Dr Elias Garcia-Pelegrin, a magician and assistant professor in comparative psychology at the National University of Singapore, in a statement . “It is a great way to study blind spots in attention and perception.”

“By investigating how species of primates experience magic, we can understand more about the evo

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