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Online Parapsychology Experiment

M

mangstad

Gone But Not Forgotten
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Sep 18, 2003
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16
I've made a simple anomalous cognition experiment recently and put it online. I'm looking to get as many participants as possible. The results from this experiment are going to determine what and how I manage subsequent online tests.

I'm looking for anyone, believers in ESP/etc or not, all backgrounds.

The experiment is here:
http://www.andrew.cmu.edu/~keitha/aconline.htm

thanks
-Mike
 
I've just completed your test.

If you're looking for a little user feedback, here goes...

Use radio buttons or check boxes for user input (much more friendly).

Try not to use Shockwave, as the plugin requires the user to register their email address (big brother).

Explain, explain, explain... What is the cultural thing about? Do you want to know my nationality?, ethnic group?, sexual preference?

Good luck with your project.

I'll be interested in seeing the results.
 
Daenris: Sorry I backed straight out - I have up to date version of the Shockwave and Flash plugins but that download popup made me distinctly nervous. I'm not going anywhere that requires a download to get in (there are real problems with rediallers at the moment as well as trojans, etc.) - I'll update on my own terms. Arthur ASCII's advice sounds good though - checkboxes for multiple choice radio for either or ;)

Emps
 
Sorry - I can't get past the second question - it just freezes and won't move on.

Check boxes would hopefully alleviate this problem.

Good luck.
 
hmmm

Well, I'm not sure why you even got a download popup if your flash/shockwave plugins are up to date, it should've worked fine.

The radio buttons/checkboxes is probably a good idea, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't fix any problems with it freezing up. I'm not sure why it would do that as I haven't had any complaints so far in the 20-30 subjects that have completed it.

Anyway, thanks for the feedback.
 
Re: hmmm

Daenris said:
The radio buttons/checkboxes is probably a good idea, but I'm pretty sure that wouldn't fix any problems with it freezing up. I'm not sure why it would do that as I haven't had any complaints so far in the 20-30 subjects that have completed it.
Click to expand...

Am quite willing to admit that it could be my computer or me or something else equally as stupid on my part:)
 
Daenris: I updated my Shockwave plugin about a week ago as a friend was doing fancy things with Shockwave that he wanted me to look at. I think the problem is actually that the shockwave plugin code doesn't like Opera at all. I've just switched to IE and it works fine although radio buttons would be a much better idea and fix the interface as it isn't overly clear what you do (as the links are the colour of the text - I'd make the 'check' link become the next link to keep hings simpler).

I'm not sure if there is a solution to the problem with Opera but I'll drop a note in if anything crops up.

Emps
 
Hi Daenris,

Is there a random element to your testing?

I haven't re-taken the test as I didn't want to "skew" your results but, if there's no randomness, be sure to find a few 100% scores in there.

Also, please enlighten me about the "cultural" question. I really didn't have a clue what you wanted me to put in there.

Lastly (if you'll accept a few tips from a consultant in Electronic Publishing), how about rewarding successful completion of your test with a big, flashy "well done and thank you" screen. Also, a clear link to the place where you're going to post your results would be a bonus.

On the plus side, you've kept things short and sweet.

I predict that you won't be blue ;) when you get the results of this experiment.
 
I took the test.

Mostly I'm just disappointed that you seem to be trying to tell me I'm not psychic. :sceptic: Which I don't believe for a minute. ;)

Other than that, I did make guesses based on the last color that was chosen (i.e. well, we haven't had brown yet) and I was generally right. So I fell back on deductive laziness pretty successfully rather than exercising my third eye.

I'm not sure what you mean by culturally, either, as there are no choices. US midwest suburbanite? Irish Catholic? Video game basement slacker? White except for rumors that my grandmother was "passing"? :D

It was fun, though.
 
culture and such

First off, yes it's randomized. Each trial is randomized individually (using the CPU clock as a seed, and no, so far no 100% ). So theoretically, falling back on just saying "we haven't had brown so I'll guess that" shouldn't give you any better odds than chance.

As for the culture question I'm looking for pretty much something like "American, European, Asian, etc" Alternately you could also put religious background if you feel that your religion contributes to your belief in the paranormal. I should've clarified that, but I'm basically just looking for any cultural/location/religious factors that may influence performance.
 
As for the culture question I'm looking for pretty much something like "American, European, Asian, etc"

Oh; I just put 'Yes'.

Sorry.
 
Worked fine here. Although I clearly have no ESP.

Can it really be called ESP, though? I mean, you're trying to read the mind of a computer, which I always thought was dodgy.
 
taras said:
Worked fine here. Although I clearly have no ESP.

Can it really be called ESP, though? I mean, you're trying to read the mind of a computer, which I always thought was dodgy.
Click to expand...

I'd call it ESP-Precognition test.
 
Yeah... I had problems with calling it ESP too. That's why I used the more general anomalous cognition. I guess that's kinda wasted since I then did mention ESP as an example :)
 
Results so Far

So far I've had 26 subjects take my experiment. The results are as follows:

Overall Hit Percent: 55% (p = .082) Nearly significant using an alpha of .05

Non-believer Hit Percent: 47% (p = .636) Not significantly different from the expected 50% (only based on 7 subjects)

Believer Hit Percent: 59% (p = .014) This is significantly different from chance expectations. (based on 17 subjects)

2 subjects failed to respond on the belief question.

There is no signifcant difference between genders overall or in believers or non-believers.

There's an interesting difference such that Left handed responders have higher hit percents, but it doesn't even approach significance (p = .195 for believers)

There doesn't seem to be a significant effect of age (though nearly all of my respondents were between 20 and 30)

I'm looking into other effects, but that's it for now. Interesting results I think... nearly 60% hit rate for believers.
 
Heh wow....

I decided upon a simple methodology. Read the color choices, stare at the black square for 10 seconds. I then closed my eyes, and whatever color the afterimage suggested to me, I answered as.

I used the check answer thing... Prolly about 6 times. Of those 6 I looked at, I was 100% accurate. Of course, the other 40% I could have gotten all wrong... But the results of what I did seem odd.

Am I missing something?

Also, it appears to me there is the option to cheat on the test, in that you could "show answers" then input what was shown. Am i missing something, in that this isnot possible?

Anyways, I found it strange that the accuracy I saw was 100%... I didn't go back and change any answers, if that is possible.
 
No... it's not possible to cheat in that manner. And actually it appears that no one tried at all. The answer you input is submitted when you press the Check Answer button, or if you haven't pressed that it submits it when you press the next trial button. So if you tried to check and then input something that answer would never be submitted.

As to the afterimage thing, perhaps that's simply your personal way of picking up on the color. There's certainly no mundane explanation that would account for that since the color does not technically exist on the monitor until you check it. Scientifically the after image should have always been the same since you were always staring at a black square. Since it wasn't for you it's possible that there was something more going on.
 
Cool test... enjoyed it :)

Feed back : I think it needs a couple of warm-up ones. Okay, this might sound stupid, but I needed to settle into the test. I got the first 3 wrong, and then 100% on the last 7. Maybe I'm just making excuses (hehe), but I did need to "tune in". I have a little ESP, and tests like this are my cup of tea.

=======================

*engage waffle*

I used to possess some low level ESP in my mid to late teens (35 now). I use to be able to identify the ace of spades in a pack of cards with remarkable accuracy. No idea on the percentages, but I would say maybe I got it 50% of the time. Only time I showed this "skill" to somebody was when I got a female friend to select a card from the pack and told her what it was. She was pretty shocked and convinced it was a party trick, but I didn't repeat it as I didn't want a "miss" to mar the desired effect hehe.

ESP makes sense to me from a human evolutionary point of view. Tests have proved it exists. (Example : Sony Tests ) What we need now is some development on identifying what gene or area of the brain is responsible for producing it is, and come up with some cool/freaky way to exploit it. Perhaps a chemical or electrical device could amplify it's effects. Unfortunately, scientists and corporations are a bunch of stuffed shirts & bean counters who wont ever get around to exploiting ESP. Perhaps it's too dangerous anyway.
 
So how many of us were left-handed then?

This always interests me, principally because I am myself (at one point half of the team that I'm a prat of at work were, so I keep a lookout for it).

Is there a higher percentage of left-handed believers to right? I think it may have also been interesting to poll peoples birth signs as well.
 
left handers

Well unfortunately I never had enough left handed people respond to reach statistical significance.

I have a bunch of data for the past month or so that I haven't entered yet because I just haven't had the time, so we'll see if there's enough left handers in that.
 
...

I've completed the test.

Until question 8, I'd guessed correctly each time. But I had a suspicion that the colour was appearing based upon what I'd typed in. So, on question 9 I didn't even try... and I got it wrong. Same for question 10 (because my suspicions were unfounded and it threw me...) So, 8 out of 10 for me!:D
 
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