Derren Brown: Trick or Treat - Pub Quiz

I think that was most probably a trick.

I'm not sure your meant to identify the parts of the show as trick or treat. Besides it would be comepletly pointless if it was staged. So they fed him the answers before hand, whats the point of filming the show? Waste of money.

I do believe that Derren uses lot of techniques for the show, magic, body language etc. he is a very smart person. But i there must be some articles or books on memory techniques such as the ones he uses.

I suspect the basic technique is based on something called Photo Reading (Derren has demonstrated something similar before by memorising a bunch of books in a library) - as it (in theory) allows for absorption of information at a much higher rate than standard reading, though it does require some work (entering a trance state, reading in a set of specific ways).

However, there's some evidence that it's all a load of baloney - so it's just as possible that he used some other memorisation technique.

(you could've brought this up when you were round last night lad... :p )

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Original post by Ging (you could've brought this up when you were round last night lad... :p )

I saw it last night after i left, think it was a repeat. Now your just following my on GameDev :P!

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Original post by Ging I suspect the basic technique is based on something called Photo Reading (Derren has demonstrated something similar before by memorising a bunch of books in a library) - as it (in theory) allows for absorption of information at a much higher rate than standard reading, though it does require some work (entering a trance state, reading in a set of specific ways). However, there's some evidence that it's all a load of baloney - so it's just as possible that he used some other memorisation technique. (you could've brought this up when you were round last night lad... :p )

What evidence is that?

This form of memory memorization is hardly anything new. This and techniques like assigning numbers to objects around the house that, when you need to remember a lot of numbers you build a house in your mind, have been in use for a long time. Here's the catch

A) They only work short term (which it even says in the episode)
B) They wont increase your actual ability to memorize things.

These techniques are used for short term tricks where a con artist wants people to believe he has given them amazing memory abilities which are only 5% of what his book/dvd teaches. Of course once said person buys the book they realize it teaches them nothing more than the first techniques. It's why high profile tv conmen get sent to jail using these exact techniques.

So while these ways of gaining photographic memory are really quite amazing (I still remember doing the number/object trick back when I was 14 that Deren explains in his card counting episode, and I still remember the objects assigned to the numbers, 1 is for pencil, 2 is for lamp etc.), they are only short term quick fixes, something Deren is good enough to share.

So yeah, awesome episode, just don't cry fake though because it seems he left this man with the information of 500 books and some kind of super brain in the space of a week, it's just a short term technique of which there are many (albeit a bloody cool one).

There's quite a lot of evidence that the shows are staged with actors playing the random members of the public.

Some things are genuine tricks (e.g. beating the chess grand masters) while other parts are acting.

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Original post by Metorical There's quite a lot of evidence that the shows are staged with actors playing the random members of the public. Some things are genuine tricks (e.g. beating the chess grand masters) while other parts are acting.

I've never heard of such evidence. People are bound to think it is all rigged though.

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Original post by Dave What evidence is that?

There was a piece of research done for NASA about the effectiveness of PhotoReading in aiding study and providing greater comprehension (linky for the report pdf) of a given text. "a load of baloney" might be putting it a tad strong, but the report results do seem to indicate a lack of any improvement, at least using the technique taught to the researcher.

I've never seen any evidence that the shows are staged - I've certainly heard people say "it must be staged" but they've never shown any actual proof.

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I'm not sure your meant to identify the parts of the show as trick or treat. Besides it would be comepletly pointless if it was staged. So they fed him the answers before hand, whats the point of filming the show? Waste of money.

When I said trick I meant as in its something else other than what he makes you believe it is. He doesnt just trick the audience but all, those people that are involved. I dont believe he uses pattsies, he doesnt need to.

He tells you about the memory tricks in his book, he says there is no super photographic memory trick, even speed reading is just a skimming technique. He just uses simple Visualisation techniques, they mainly just involve chaining a story together and visualising the things.