Magical Thinking: What Prestidigitation Can Tell Us About Cognition

“Which is a better magic trick: turning a dove into a glass of milk, or a glass of milk into a dove? Turning a rose into a vase, or a vase into a rose? For most people, … in each case, they find the transformation from a nonliving object to a living thing more interesting – but why? Is it just more exciting to see a living thing appear than to have it vanish? Or is there something deeper at work?”