Controversies: ESP and Psychokinesis What does the research say and what are the criticisms?

Controversies 1.) Ganzfeld studies of ESP What is the Ganzfeld technique? Developed by Honorton (1974) Subjects are in a red-lit room with halved table –tennis balls taped over their eyes and earphones playing white noise Why was it developed? Researchers believe that ESP is a weaker force than other senses therefore gets ‘drowned out’

Controversies - Ganzfeld studies of ESP 1985 – Honorton published results: Found: 38% success rate as apposed to 25% due to chance. Hyman (1985) – challenged results: claimed studies lacked security and were not correctly analysed. He re- analysed results and found NO evidence! How to resolve their issues…. They got together and developed a new scientifically improved technique (autoganzfeld). Again Honorton found sig results (34%) After his death in 1992… researchers have found conflicting evidence.

Controversies – Psychokinesis (PK) What is Psychokinesis? The ability to move things with your mind 2 TYPES 1.) Macro-PK Batcheldor (1984) claimed that people feeling self-conscious prevents PK from happening. He ‘dealt’ with this by initially performing a fake levitation – becoming comfortable with the idea – and then transferring to real levitation of objects.

Controversies – Psychokinesis (PK) 2.) Micro – PK In the US, paranormal labs at Princeton use: REG The test: to see if people can manipulate the flipping of a coin. Jahn (1997) found: 1.) Effect sizes very small for individuals 2.) But when scores combined – extremely significant 3.) Also found effects increased when 2 subjects who had a close emotional attachment worked together.

Evaluation- Ganzfeld studies of ESP Procedural criticisms: Subjective interpretation…. (Carroll 2003) Description of image is wordy and requires researcher to ‘match’ reported images sent… The psi assumption Carroll 2003 also argues that it should not be assumed that positive results prove PSI/ESP The sheep-goat effect: We can’t deny that there is an interaction between subjects beliefs, the researchers beliefs and the results of the research. Skeptics often do not find evidence Supporters do…. So how can positive results be explained then…?

!!!Evaluation!!! Ganzfeld studies of ESP One explanation for findings is ‘Researcher bias’ Even unknowingly researchers may give ‘hints’ to participants Eg. Clever Hans story: 1904: scientists were convinced that the horse could do arithmetic…but in fact it wasn’t true. His owner was giving him clues in the questions… In paranormal research, sig results disappear when experimenter changed…

Commentary – Studies of Psychokinesis Macro PK: ‘Placebo effect’ Greening (2005) found that in a study where research said aloud ‘The spoon is bending’ – participants were more likely to report that it did Micro – PK: Bierman (2000): concluded that since scientific control has become more stringent, effect size has declined. This isn’t the usual trend for scientific research…

The Application of PSI abilities Who would be interested in this research?? Who would want to know if ESP existed??

Application of PSI abilities In 1970’s: The CIA in the US explored whether it could be used to exploit counterintelligence The US government has spent millions on research but failed to find evidence