How the ESP experiment worked

[Still Waters]

Professor Daryl Bem claimed that evidence gathered across nine experiments conducted on Cornell students over the past decade bolstered his argument that extra-sensory perception existed.

One reversed a simple memory test in which people are typically found to be better at recalling a selection of words – taken from a larger set – on which they focus attention.

In his version, students were shown 48 nouns – drawn from the categories of foods, animals, occupations, and clothes – on a screen for three seconds each, and asked to visualise the object described.

They were then given a surprise memory test, in which they had to recall as many of the words as possible.

Their computer then randomly selected six words from each of the four categories and these 24 nouns appeared on the screen.

The student was asked to click the 6 “food” words, which turned red when clicked, and then to retype the words into empty slots on the screen. They did this for all four categories of noun.

Read more...

Extra Sensory Perception: a brief history-

The concept of Extra Sensory Perception has been around for more than a century but was only popularised in the 1930s.

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/8244695/Extra-Sensory-Perception-a-brief-history.html

Edited January 7, 2011 by Still Waters
Additional source link added

[ovaz1088]

We are all natural-born psychics. It really is nothing new; only scientific confirmation, I guess lol.

[d e v i c e]

Yes. The proofs been there for years. Its not a question of 'does it exist?' its a question of 'will science ever admit that it exists?' So here are the first baby steps along the road to a 'true' open mind. I hope.

[Bendy Demon]

Yes. The proofs been there for years.

Really? Has it?

From what I gather, the "tests" basically relied on memorization of words as well as relying on plain old guessing.

This is not ESP or any supposedly psychic skill.

Maybe I am missing something but I fail to see how these tests proved anything...it was more like a study on what words people were more inclined to remember or chose.

[Realityless]

Yet again the truth raises its head and main stream science attacks full on rather than admit that outside of classical physics they are as clueless as everybody else.

Any chance of a poll as to how long main stream science will bury this under quantum entanglement or something similar, never to be heard about again.

[Bendy Demon]

Yet again the truth raises its head and main stream science attacks full on rather than admit that outside of classical physics they are as clueless as everybody else.

What truth are we talking about here?

The test we read of didn't even have anything to do with psychic skills to begin with and in the end it wasn't even conclusive.

At any rate there have been plenty of tests done to try and prove the existence of said skills and so far all it has shown was that some people were better at guessing than others.

I am not convinced.

[Realityless]

Really? Has it?

From what I gather, the "tests" basically relied on memorization of words as well as relying on plain old guessing.

This is not ESP or any supposedly psychic skill.

Maybe I am missing something but I fail to see how these tests proved anything...it was more like a study on what words people were more inclined to remember or chose.

I think you have missed the point.

The results show that practicing a set of words after the recall test does, in fact, reach back in time to facilitate the recall of those words,

If you take two groups of people, roughly equal and give them a memory test you would expect roughly equal results.

What has been found is that one group was asked to memorise the list after the test scored higher. While this could be easily faked, his experiments look genuine.

Since the sixties there have been a lot of experiments around randomness that have shown that there is some undescribed interaction between the events and the human mind.

The only unusual point here is that a mainstream scientific journal "The Journal of Personality and Social Psychology" (and there are a lot of scientist that claim Psychology is a pseudoscience) have been force into publishing it.

Full paper http://dbem.ws/FeelingFuture.pdf

Edited January 8, 2011 by Realityless

[Bendy Demon]

Again this seems to point to nothing more than memory recall especially if all the words are related in some manner.

At any rate this test proved nothing and if these scientist want to study that validity or lack thereof of such "skills" then they need to employ better methods that do not rely on memory recall or word associations.

[Realityless]

At any rate this test proved nothing and if these scientist want to study that validity or lack thereof of such "skills" then they need to employ better methods that do not rely on memory recall or word associations.

How can you test for factors that influence the outcome of memory recall, without testing for memory recall?

[Bendy Demon]

But they did test memory recall..it was mentioned several times in the article..how about lines like this:

"They were then given a surprise memory test, in which they had to recall as many of the words as possible"

or this:

"The results show that practicing a set of words after the recall test does, in fact, reach back in time to facilitate the recall of those words,"

I could cite more but the gist of this article and test seems to center around recalling words they were exposed to earlier..memory retrieval is not psychic in the least but simply relies on normal brain functions. The article employs a language that is vague and ambiguous.

I am unsure how you see the test and I'd like to know how you interpret it.

I am not saying I am right or wrong but I just do not see how these tests prove anything.

[d e v i c e]

Well, it wasn't just a memory test. The students were predicting with a higher frequency, words that the computer gave at random.

[Virtual Particle]

But they did test memory recall..it was mentioned several times in the article..how about lines like this:

"They were then given a surprise memory test, in which they had to recall as many of the words as possible"

or this:

"The results show that practicing a set of words after the recall test does, in fact, reach back in time to facilitate the recall of those words,"

I could cite more but the gist of this article and test seems to center around recalling words they were exposed to earlier..memory retrieval is not psychic in the least but simply relies on normal brain functions. The article employs a language that is vague and ambiguous.

I am unsure how you see the test and I'd like to know how you interpret it.

I am not saying I am right or wrong but I just do not see how these tests prove anything.

Look at what Bem actually did: Bem's findings are "fascinating," says Robert Krulwich at NPR. For example, when he asked students to choose between two computer images of curtains — one of which "hid" a blank wall, while the other concealed a picture (sometimes an erotic one) — they chose the curtain hiding the photo at a rate higher than statistical odds would suggest. "One possibility is that the tasty reward of 'hot action' somehow got passed backwards through time more effectively." Bem is one of the "most respected, senior and widely published professors of psychology" in the world. If his findings can be repeated, "this story is going to be big."

Rest of link

Feeling the Future: the PDF research file

Any thoughts?

RIP...Judge John Roll

Further Reading

Edited January 9, 2011 by Virtual Particle

[Bendy Demon]

I guess I am just an idiot then because I have read and re-read the articles as well as the PDF file that was linked and I still fail to see how some tests based mostly in randomness is proof of anything.

Because all these tests are done with computers then it stands to reason that results can be fudged; the result the participant sees may not be the same "result" that the researchers record for themselves...after all it can be done.

Sorry..I...just don't see it.

[Virtual Particle]

I guess I am just an idiot then because I have read and re-read the articles as well as the PDF file that was linked and I still fail to see how some tests based mostly in randomness is proof of anything.

Because all these tests are done with computers then it stands to reason that results can be fudged; the result the participant sees may not be the same "result" that the researchers record for themselves...after all it can be done.

Sorry..I...just don't see it.

Ryu the reason they were shown the images before hand is probably because of certain hormonal changes that occur in adults, when shown naked pictures of people they find attractive...they were later asked to pick, accurately between a blank image and an image of a naked person basically...the experiment presents that when adults are exposed to naked people and they like the way that type of person looks...they are better than average in choosing the image of the naked person as opposed to the blank image...that is the part that was done by computer...The test showed that when pleasure is involved people seem to be psychic...

[Bendy Demon]

.The test showed that when pleasure is involved people seem to be psychic...

Hmm..the key word here is "seem".

Yet what does hormonal based arousal truly have to do with psychic skills? After all if such a thing exists, not everyone is going to be feeling "aroused" before they can do whatever it is they claim they can do.

Anyways thanks for your reply. The vid was neat but..no offenses intended, what relevance does it have to the issue?

[Virtual Particle]

Hmm..the key word here is "seem".

Yet what does hormonal based arousal truly have to do with psychic skills? After all if such a thing exists, not everyone is going to be feeling "aroused" before they can do whatever it is they claim they can do.

Anyways thanks for your reply. The vid was neat but..no offenses intended, what relevance does it have to the issue?

A release of adrenaline can affect Psi ability...one day I was crossing a major street and there was this guy with some friends...I was about 2 blocks from where he was standing but I knew what he was planning...he was body builder and in pretty good shape...his plan was to throw a punch at me but not to actually hit me...just come a close as he can....without actually touching me...knowing this I headed in his direction and he did exactly what I sensed he would...he was confused by my reaction because I had none...I already knew what was going to happen....

Most of the experiences I have in respect to Psi are life or death issues and that releases hormones prior to the actual event given I know about ti before it happens...The vid was intended as a joke Ryu....Thanks for your reply as well...