ABSTRACT
Research on cognitive illusions has developed a tradition of its own. This book documents the state of the art for an impressive list of cognitive illusions, thus supplying profound insight into the relevant factors causing or modifying these illusions. Looking back at the history of the respective research shows that most of these illusions have been studied in complete isolation without any reference to the other ones, and moreover without any reference to the large body of research on suggestions. As a matter of fact, the editor of this book noted that the first versions of the chapters’ manuscripts contained almost no explicit links to any of the other chapters. Experimental methods as well as theoretical explanations of cognitive illusions thus resembled an archipelago spread out in a vast ocean without any sailor having visited more than one (or at the most two) of these small islands yet. In trying to further explore this largely unknown territory, we believe that cognitive illusions are more connected than previously acknowledged, that they show parallels to suggestions so that both research domains should benefit from each other methodologically as well as theoretically, and that both should be placed within the broader context of general cognitive processes.
