Folk Illusions in The Dictionary of American Regional English: Text, Context, and a Triangulation Method for Cognitive Folkloristics

Abstract

We examine The Dictionary of American Regional English as a possible source for folk illusion data. Recognizing a known children’s folklore trick, ‘Jack and Jim’, as a folk illusion, we investigate the nature of the change blindness illusion featured in the form as we describe the benefits of our interdisciplinary triangulation methods for cognitive folkloristics. Ultimately, we argue that studies of decontextualized folklore texts (such as dictionary data) are bolstered by the implied contexts of shared embodied processes.