http://www.youtube.com/wat ch?

v=c3s9nGMfgr8

What is ESP? What does ganzfeld mean? What is the Sheep-Goat effect? What is a meta-analysis? What is the file-drawer effect ? Explain how autoganzfeld (Zener cards, random numbers, soundproofing) deals with some of ganzfeld s methodological issues.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z2TOLxfeFHs

 Autoganzfeld
Separates the researcher, receiver and sender Automatically chooses the senders material leaving less room for bias

How do these alterations help to deal with pseudoscience claims?

 French et al
 Asked to evaluate remote viewing evidence.  Looked at images from locations and transcripts from receiver and rated how well they matched (i.e. whether it was a hit)  Results: believers rated probability of there being a match much higher than disbelievers even when there was no relationship.

Many Ganzfeld studies use free association, how might this give opportunities for bias? What effect is this an example of?

 Meta Analyses
Bem & Honorton Milton & Wiseman Explain how these researchers came to opposite conclusions using the

File Drawer Effect

11 autoganzfeld studies selected on the basis of strict experimental procedures (computer administration, soundproofing, electrical shielding, one-way intercom). 240 participants in total. Experience of participants and film/static images compared. Hit rate at chance would be 25%. Individual studies varied between 24% and 54%, with an overall percentage of 32.5% Experienced participants did better than newbies , and results were better with video than static images. What do these results suggest?

Milton & Wiseman (1999) suggested that methodological flaws in some of Bem & Honorton s studies, e.g. low-level sensory leakage, could have accounted for their positive findings. Their own meta-analysis of 30 studies found very little deviation from chance there was a 24% chance of the results occurring by chance. However Storm & Ertel (2001) have responded with a meta-analysis of 79 Ganzfeld studies supporting Bem & Honorton s findings What does all this mean?

 Some people do better than others From Bems Meta Analysis

Sheep Extroverts Experienced meditators and Telepaths

Wisemans meta analysis only found that experienced meditators did better. Is there any explanation we can come up with of why this might be true?

What is an investigator effect ? Wiseman (a goat ) and Shiltz (a sheep ) conducted similar experiments into gaze detection (can participants tell when they are being stared at using ESP?) Shiltz found an ESP effect but Wiseman didn t. The following slide is a quote from the abstract of the joint study they then conducted:

Such "experimenter effects" are common within parapsychology and are open to several competing interpretations. For example, M. S.'s study may have contained an experimental artifact absent from R. W.'s procedure. Alternatively, M. S. may have worked with more psychically gifted participants than R. W. had, or may have been more skilled at eliciting participants' psi ability. It is also possible that M. S. and R. W. created desired results via their own psi abilities, or fraud. Little previous research has attempted to evaluate these competing hypotheses. This is unfortunate, because it is clearly important to establish why experimenter effects occur, both in terms of assessing past psi research and attempting to replicate studies in the future. For these reasons, the authors agreed to carry out a joint study in the hope of learning why our original studies obtained such dramatically different results.

Both acted as experimenters on different trials, using the same pool of participants (opportunistically assigned), location and method. Shiltz s subjects showed differences in EDA (electro-dermal activity) between stare and non-stare trial, Wiseman s did not. How can we explain these results?
http://findarticles.com/p/articles/mi_m2320/is_n3_v61/ai_20749205/pg_3/?tag=content;col1

 Uri Gellar James Randi challenge (opaque glass, spoon bending) failed even though he was studied at Stanford and believed. Nina Kulagina Russian who could move things but always performed at home or hotel and needed a few hours to prepare herself first... Someone discovered her moving items with a hair attached to her leg.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q4FFUL6qu3U

How did Uri Geller convince parapsychologists at the Stanford Research Institute that his powers were genuine? What did Shafer et al at Washington University claim to have found? What problems with their research methodology did James Randi reveal with Project Alpha, and how did he do it?

 More scientifically studied Princeton Random Event Generator (coin flipper)

 Jahn (97) 12 years of trials. With small number of trials the results were just above chance but over 12 years the results were highly significant (1 in 10,000,000,000,000!)
Operators could work at a distance Could influence outcome even when machines were not operating 2 volunteers who were emotionally close had stronger effect than one. http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=Random+Event+Ge nerator&search_type=&aq=f http://library.thinkquest.org/C0120993/onlinepk.html - test yourself

Aim: to establish whether combined results of PK studies suggest that PK is real, or that positive results are the result of methodological issues. Procedure: 380 studies included. Number of trials, behaviour of experimenter, setting and quality of controls considered. Findings: combined results suggested a small but significant PK effect, but older, smaller and less wellcontrolled studies demonstrated the bigger effects than newer, larger and better controlled studies. What conclusion can be drawn from this? What issues arise with this research?

 Fraud Uri Gellar Desire to believe in audience (Randi) Effect size decreasing Bierman (Analysed results over time and finds the effect reduces which is the opposite of usual science)

ESP Clairvoyance Falsification Empiricism Methodological Pluralism HypotheticoDeductive Method Psi Phenomena Telepathy

Precognition Vibrational Frequencies Quasi-scientific White noise Pink noise File Drawer effect Sheep-goat effect Macro PK Micro PK

1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9.

Bem Jahn Wiseman and Shiltz French Walter Levy Soal Wiseman Sargent James Randi

Sheep interpret ambiguous information in line with the theory Shackleton fake ESP Man who faked rat results of PK Coin flipper significant over 12 years Meta Analysis in favour of ESP Meta Analysis against ESP Sheep-goat experimenter effect Ganzfeld study Alpha Project