A thread to discuss the 'honed skills and techniques' of Patrick Jane (and others). I'll start with an easy one. Here's the clip of Patrick 'reading Lisbon's mind' - how does he know
what shapes she's thinking of?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YycPMi8KLrE
Firstly you need to know that when asked to think of a shape most people will think of a square, triangle or circle. 'Mind reading' requires this sort of knowledge.
Firstly Jane asks her to imagine a screen - there's no reason for this other than to introduce a straight sided shape.
He then asks her to 'project a basic shape, like a square but not a square'. Why does he not want her to 'project' a square - well because he has introduced a straight sided shape and the most common straight sided shapes that people think of are squares and triangles. He is also holding his fingers in a triangular shape. Another suggestion. So, if he eliminates the possibility that she can choose a square, and he adds in the visual stimulus to encourage her to choose a triangle, he has a very high chance that she will choose a triangle.
Then he asks her to 'project' another shape. He makes a round movement with his hands and also of course asks her to put it 'around' the other shape. The chances are even higher that she will choose a circle.
It's a simple trick really - when Lisbon says that she was thinking of an 'octagon inside a rectangle' it sounds so unlikely - because it is!
