Anomalistic Psychology (Part 1)
- Created by: Natalie
- Created on: 08-06-14 17:50
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- Anomalistic Psychology (1)
- Fraud
- Soal-Goldney (1941-43)
- Suggesting precognitive ability of a single participant
- Were long regarded as some of the best in the field because they relied on independent checking and witnesses
- Participant was asked to guess cards
- Hit rate was much above chance and highly significant
- Years later, statistical evidence uncovered that Dr. Soal had altered some of the raw data
- Walter J. Levy (1974)
- Levy reported on some successful ESP studies involving computer-controlled manipulation of non-human subjects
- His studies showed very high positive results
- Levy had interfered with data-recording equipment and manually created fraudulent stings of positive results
- Soal-Goldney (1941-43)
- Ganzfeld studies
- Technique
- Used to test for telepathy
- Sender transmits mentally the identity of a randomly selected target to a receiver who is perceptually deprived
- P's eyes are covered with half table tennis balls and wear head phones playing white noise
- The receiver verbally describes their imagery
- Afterwards, the receiver judges which of the possible images was being transmitted to them
- statistically there is a 25% chance of achieving a hit
- Meta-Analyses
- Milton and Wiseman (1999)
- Published a meta-analysis of 30 ganzfeld studies carried out in 7 independent labs against strict guidelines
- It was found that scores were not significant
- Cut off date for studies to be completed was Feb 1997. A large-scale study with positive results was therefore not included in the meta-analysis. If it had been included, the results of the meta-analysis would have been significant.
- Honorton et al. (1990)
- Reviewed 11 studies
- Reported 34% hit rate - significant result
- Milton and Wiseman (1999)
- Criticisms
- Sheep / Goats
- Sheep = those who believe in ESP. Goats = those who don't believe in ESP
- Above average hit rate for sheep and below average for goats
- Belief of the paranormal shapes our experiences of it
- Believers will try to encourage more detail about the image than non-believers and are more generous in deciding what constitutes a hit
- Bem and Honorton (1994)
- Guidelines for ganzfeld experiments
- Strict security against sensory leakage
- Proper randomization of subjects
- Statistical correction for multiple analysis
- Advance specification of status of experiment
- Full documentation of experimental procedures
- Full description of statistical tests
- Reduced human bias and creates more valid, replicable studies
- Avoids experimenter effects, bias, extraneous variables and reduces fraud
- Guidelines for ganzfeld experiments
- Sheep / Goats
- Technique
- Psychokinesis
- Macro-PK
- Clearly observable effects
- Micro-PK
- Weaker effects unnoticeable to the naked eye - require statistical evaluation
- Methods of investigating
- J.B. Rhine investigated throwing dice when a participant would have to state the number that would be on the upward face before it landed
- True random number generator (RNG) makes a data stream that is recorded and analysed by computer software
- Subject tries to mentally change the distribution of random numbers
- Research into PK
- Hansel (1989)
- Well-controlled trials produce no support for PK
- 13/30 studies he examined produced positive results - none of these were well-controlled
- Flawed methodology = positive findings
- Radin and Nelson (2003)
- Reviewed 500 studies of micro-PK (1959-2000)
- Found no significant relationship between methodological quality and outcome
- Suggests quality is not a factor in producing significant effects
- Bierman (2000)
- Analysed PK studies since J.B. Rhine and found effect size has been getting smaller
- Usually effect size gets bigger as scientists figure out what is happening and can control variables
- Increasing control has opposite effect in paranormal research
- Suggests phenomena are not real
- Hansel (1989)
- Macro-PK
- Fraud
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