Mind Hacks | O'Reilly Media

BUY THIS BOOK

Print Book $24.95

Safari Books Online

What is this?

Print Book £17.50

What is this?

Looking to Reprint this content?

Tell a friend

Mind Hacks Tips & Tricks for Using Your Brain

By Tom Stafford, Matt Webb
First Edition November 2004
Pages: 394
Series: Hacks
ISBN 10: 0-596-00779-5 | ISBN 13: 9780596007799

Book description

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, and 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.
Full Description

The brain is a fearsomely complex information-processing environment--one that often eludes our ability to understand it. At any given time, the brain is collecting, filtering, and analyzing information and, in response, performing countless intricate processes, some of which are automatic, some voluntary, some conscious, and some unconscious. Cognitive neuroscience is one of the ways we have to understand the workings of our minds. It's the study of the brain biology behind our mental functions: a collection of methods--like brain scanning and computational modeling--combined with a way of looking at psychological phenomena and discovering where, why, and how the brain makes them happen. Want to know more? Mind Hacks is a collection of probes into the moment-by-moment works of the brain. Using cognitive neuroscience, these experiments, tricks, and tips related to vision, motor skills, attention, cognition, subliminal perception, and more throw light on how the human brain works. Each hack examines specific operations of the brain. By seeing how the brain responds, we pick up clues about the architecture and design of the brain, learning a little bit more about how the brain is put together. Mind Hacks begins your exploration of the mind with a look inside the brain itself, using hacks such as "Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation: Turn On and Off Bits of the Brain" and "Tour the Cortex and the Four Lobes." Also among the 100 hacks in this book, you'll find:

Release Eye Fixations for Faster Reactions
See Movement When All is Still
Feel the Presence and Loss of Attention
Detect Sounds on the Margins of Certainty
Mold Your Body Schema
Test Your Handedness
See a Person in Moving Lights
Make Events Understandable as Cause-and-Effect
Boost Memory by Using Context
Understand Detail and the Limits of Attention

Steven Johnson, author of "Mind Wide Open" writes in his foreword to the book, "These hacks amaze because they reveal the brain's hidden logic; they shed light on the cheats and shortcuts and latent assumptions our brains make about the world." If you want to know more about what's going on in your head, then Mind Hacks is the key--let yourself play with the interface between you and the world.

Post-purchase benefits:

Browse within this book

Cover | Table of Contents | Index | Sample Hacks | Colophon

Book details

First Edition: November 2004
Series: Hacks
ISBN: 0-596-00779-5
Pages: 394

Featured customer reviews

Be the first person to review this book!

Media reviews

"Mind Hacks is far from being a book filled with medical mumbo-jumbo and technical wizardry. Instead, Mind Hacks takes the time to explain to the reader just how the mind perceives certain tricks to be reality, and why the mind does so. Each hack in the book is actually some sort of a trick or illusion that the reader can perform to better understand how the brain works. At the end of each hack is a section highlighting how the illusion works and why... Mind Hacks is an interesting book to have for those who are interested in how the brain perceives everything around us...a great book for a novice to explore the world of cognitive neuroscience."
--Brian Boudreau, MELUG-Central (MainE Linux Users Group), July 2005

"In the foreword, neuroscientist Steven Johnson notes that computer folks use the work 'hack' to mean 'something we do to an existing tool that gives it some new aptitude that was not part of its original feature set.' He goes on to say that that sense of the word is not useful here. Rather, what we have here is a collection of tricks of the mind... There are 100 hacks in all in the book. That’s 25 cents a hack. So, hack away and learn something about the human CPU (not an apt metaphor, we are told, for the human mind). Read more to find out why."
--Rick Fischer, The Bridge, Memphis PC User Group, May 2005

"[Mind Hacks] makes a wonderful annotated bibliography, with a light touch of hackish humour that inspires further reading."
--Mike Holderness, New Scientist, February 2005

"Welcome to a book that deals with both the conscious, the unconscious, and a twenty-first-century look at cognitive neuroscience and hidden logic of the human mind."
--Robert Pritchett, Mac Companion, February 2005

"You may never have a better chance to learn about how your brain works...Mind Hacks is one book that will make learning about your brain entertaining and fascinating. Try it; I think you'll like it. Recommended"
--Epinions.com, February 2005

"Mind Hacks is a rewarding mind trip, one that stretches the boundaries of what we know about how the brain works and playfully presents that information in an engaging, thought-provoking way."
--Bill Wallo, Blogcritics.org, January 2005

"If you've always wanted to get closer to your cerebellum but never plucked up the courage to take that DIY neurosurgery course, this is the book for you."
--The Guardian, January 2005

"Mind Hacks is a great read - I spent a whole afternoon looking through at the various hacks and realizing things I have never before thought of. The best part is that you aren't stuck reading in order - you can skip around and find the hacks that most interest you. And, references to other hacks (Printed Hyperlinks?) are abundant. So, if you're interested in learning a bit more about how our brains work, this book is highly recommended."
--SiteCritique.net, January 2005

"Mucking about in the wetware is a great way to spend those long gray winter months...[W]ith the authors' collection of tricks and tips for defragging, rebooting and fine-tuning your mind, and you'll be in fine shape come summertime. You may still look like crap in a bathing suit, but you'll be smarter than ever and fully in control of your own user interface."
--Michelle Delio, Wired News, December 2004

Hide extended reviews