Card Magic and Misdirection

To be honest, I would rather call this blog post “Card Magic and Misdirection”, even though it is a reflection on my understanding of Declarative, Procedural and Metacognitive Knowledge, and the different types of knowledge and intelligences. Have you even seen a young street magician or a magician in a restaurant or club walking up to you and go “Hey do you want to see a magic trick? Its called the Ambitious Card!” He then proceeds to fan a deck of cards, forces you to take a card and sign it. Pretend to slip the card in the middle of the deck and with a flourish magically brings the card to the top. Wincing you thank him for the short entertainment and hope that you never see another magician again.

Then a few days later, you happen to see a professional card magician. Dressed formally, he performs the same card trick, but instead of being left with a bad taste in your mouth, you are left speechless and in awe of what had just happened. One of the other things you notice is that he is a lot older than the younger less experienced magician. In fact, giving one an insight into the world of magic, all of the best card magicians at the moment are above 50. In fact, if you were part of the magic faternity, names like Vernon, Tamariz, Darwin Ortiz and Ascanio are legends in the fields of magic.

Declarative Knowledge

So how do we learn to do the Ambitious Card? We look at a video on youtube, watch a DVD and/or read a magic text book (Yes, they do exist). If you are like me, I will study the very basics of magic card technique, learning more advanced techniques as I go. Like mathematics, there are hundreds of formulas in magic. And no, not the Harry Potter type.

So when you first learn the Ambitious Card, a schema is formed. The schema will look like this;  how the cards are held right hand, the placement of our left hand, the type of cards we are using, the technique we are going to use. We read another book and learn another method and learn about timing and misdirection. This new information gets assimilated into our schema of the Ambitous Card. We also learn about how the Ambitious Card was developed, its history and why it was developed. The “magician” like Goetz et al. (1992), surgeon needs all this knowledge to effectively perform.

Procedural Knowledge

It is recommended that we learn the “Ambitious Card” or in fact all Card Magic in the following familiar stages. In fact, Goetz at al (1992) use the following labels declarative, procedural and automatic.

Stage I – Learn the individual techniques – the double lift and the classic pass, and how to put them together to form the schema of “Ambitious Card”

Stage 2 – Practice in private and correct, then do again and again

Stage 3 – Make it muscle memory.

Just like Goetz et al (1992) example of learning to drive a car illustrates this as well. We pick up the rules and regulations, read and memorise the rules and jump into the car and start to drive! Well not really, there is that running checklist we have. Then we practice and practice and practice. We correct our mistakes and try not to have any bad habits. Seek feedback on our driving, correct if we have to and practice again. We practice first in the car park and then on the roads. And the more experience we have, the better we are at it. Our personal space expands with our car, we have some “special sixth sense” and we master automatic driving. (Seen anyone on the freeway driving while having breakfast, putting on make-up or reading a book recently?)

Now our knowledge of the “Ambitious Card” does not stay stagnant. New methods to perform it are constantly being published. We learn from friends, colleages, mentors and through experience. The schema constantly evolves or is, in this case tuned.

Metacognition Knowledge

How are new techniques to doing the “Ambitious Card” developed? What is the difference between a magician, a good magician and a Master Magician? I believe Metacogition Knowledge answers parts of those questions. The understanding and knowledge of the cognitive processes of one’s cognitive processes and that of others, an understanding of the different demands of different tasks and the understanding of that of strategies (Goetz et al, 1992).

As I said, there are many techniques to learning the “Ambitious Card”. The double lift, the classic pass, the butterfly pass, the side steal, the palm, and the list goes on. What if you were particulaly weak in any of those sleights? Have you ever showed card magic to a blind girl? Or performed in a nightclub where the music makes listening to the one impossible? How about entering into the personal spaces of a group of people wanting to entertain them with the “Ambitious Card”? Understanding all of this and developing the strategies will either make or break a magician.

Then of course there is tacit knowledge…..emotional intelligence…..social intelligences….

Thoughts

Do we actually take time to consciously have the Production System in our heads going IF THEN…

Never do a card trick while playing cards with friends or in a country where performing magic can get you burnt at the stake.

References

Goetz, E. T., Alexander, P. A., & Ash, M. J. (1992). Educational psychology: A classroom perspective. New York: Macmillan.

Emotional Intelligence the the ability of (a) the recongnition of one’s own emotions and that of others, (b) the generation and the use of emotions to solve problems (c) to understand emotions and how they can change and (d) the mangement of one’s emotions and that of others (Mayer & Salovey, 1997). There is evidence in research into Emotional Intelligence that, if one scores high in the Emotional Intelligence scale, a teacher/trainer would be able to perform more effectively, manage stress more effectively, and be successful in both social and professional relationships (Mayer, Salovey, & Caruso, 2004). Building on a number of assumptions. that would mean that a teacher with high emotional intelligence would be, in theory peform much better than a teacher with low emotional intelligence. So lets hire only teachers with high emotional intelligence and we shall use a ‘IQ test’ for Emotional Intelligence.

The Mayer-Salovey-Caruso Emotional Intelligence Test (MSCEIT) is an ability-based measure of Emotional Intelligence and is the most wide spread measurement used. Perfect! We will use this test during the interview process thereby guaranteeing that the teachers/trainers that we employ are more emotionally intelligent. It is isn’t it? It will be, but only in a homogenous culture.

Sure there are emotions that are universal, but there are also emotions that are culturally specific (Shao et al, 2014). This impacts on the understanding and the regulations of these culturally specific emotions. The MSCEIT falls short in this area because it measures emotional intelligence in a specific culture that it was designed for. So one could be emotionally intelligence in one culture, but fall short in another. That goes that same with musical and bodily kinesthetic intelligence, and social intelligence. All of which are intelligences culturally “influenced”.

 

Mayer, J. D., Salovey, P., & Caruso, D. R. (2004). Emotional Intelligence: Theory, Findings, and Implications. Psychological Inquiry, 15(3), 197-215.

Mayer, J. D., & Salovey, P. (1997). What is Emotional Intelligence. In P. Salovey, & D. J. Sluyter, Emotional Development and Emotional Intelligence (pp. 3-35). New York: Basic Books.

Shao, B., Doucet, L. & Caruso, D. R. (2014) Universality Versus Cultural Specificity of Three Emotion Domains: Some Evidence Based on the Cascading Model of Emotional Intelligence. Journal of Cross Cultural Psycholog, 1-23.

 

My first blog post. Well here is a little about myself. I am born in Singapore but have been here in Perth Australia for about 30 years. I am happily married with 2 daughters, aged 16 and 10. I am Eurasian and am working as a Training Manager in a Healthcare Organisation. Currently, I am completing a Master’s of Education (Research)and this is the beginning of another journey of my life, well to be more precise a decision to go “right” in the many paths in front of me. Hey, guess what? It’s also descriptions I use to describe myself when someone asks me to introduce myself.

So what interests me? What am I good at? I am good at my job. I believe I am an expert at what I do. I am a good manager.I paint, I enjoy and read about history and I do a few tricks. Ask me what I mean when you next see me. I promise to surprise you.

So more on this journey of mine. I am studying Teacher Burnout. More importantly, I am looking at Emotional Intelligence and how teachers with high emotional intelligence tend to be more resilient. However, what many teachers do not take into account is that there are certain emotions that are culturally specific. So a high emotional intelligence score does not always equate to high emotional intelligence especially in a multicultural environment. In other words, the measurement used to measure emotional intelligence does not take into account culturally specific emotions.

Enough about me at the moment. But I promise to keep everyone updated once in a while…