Methodological Issues In Parapsychological Research

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Methodological Issues In Parapsychological
Research

• Lecture 2
• Parapsychology
• Paul Staples

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Overview

• In this lecture we will cover
• Why is methodology important?
• Spotting the fraud
• Mistaken psi
• Methodological requirements of psi investigations
• The Ganzfeld procedure
• Sheep, goats and statistics
• Summary

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Learning Outcomes

• This session will enable you to
• appreciate the importance of methodological
  rigour
• understand the ease with which fraudulent
  activity can occur
• recognise some of the accepted methodological
  procedures
• Be aware of statistical dilemmas

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Why is methodology important?

• We need to treat psi as we would any other
  phenomenon that we want to investigate by
  scientific means
• We need to establish that the phenomenon can be
  explained ONLY by psi!
• To do this, we need to ensure that we can
  reasonably eliminate all other explanations

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Why is methodology important?

• In assessing psi through science, we MUST apply
  the same rigour as we do in any other scientific
  field
• As you read the literature, you might want to
  evaluate whether or not the rules that apply to
  psi are more strict than those applied to
  mainstream psychology
• Why is there such a fuss made with psi and not
  with other areas of psychology?
• Consider the wider implications of proving that
  psi exists! Our entire world view would change.
• We must be sure and eliminate other possible
  explanations for our findings, e.g. fraud and
  mistaken psi to name just two.

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Spotting the fraud

• You may be familiar with the work of Cyril Burt
  and of the issues surrounding the objectivity
  of science
• There are, thankfully, few charlatans within
  mainstream psychology
• Parapsychology reflects a different set of human
  needs and is therefore more vulnerable to fraud

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Spotting the fraud

• The term fraud is loaded but there are enough
  examples of people who have deliberately tried to
  deceive
• The reasons are not always dishonourable but the
  deception is intentional
• There are others who are not fraudulent but
  mistaken more of those in a moment

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Spotting the fraud

• Two types of frauds exist
• The first is dishonourable and intentional
• The second is, perhaps, just intentional
• Rev. Jim Jones used fraud to attract followers to
  his church in Guyana and to keep them there
• A psychic surgeon in the Philippines faked
  surgery to effect cures

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Spotting the fraud

• Are these examples of the first kind of fraud or
  are these people fulfilling the needs of people
  in ways that other processes cannot
• These needs might be religious needs, hopes for a
  cure, and so on
• Can we easily distinguish these from the out and
  out charlatans who use the psychic banner to
  extort money from people (often the wealthy)

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Mistaken psi

• Not everyone who doesnt really exhibit psi is
  necessarily a fraud
• Some people may possess or be able to use
  extraordinary physical powers that give the
  appearance of being psi
• The person may know they have a gift but may
  mistakenly attribute this to psi
• For example, a person may have hyperacuity of one
  of the senses

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Methodological requirements

• The discussion so far has, I hope, shown you that
  there is a need to apply methodological rigour to
  any investigations of psi
• Any methodology employed must guard against
  deliberate or unintentional suggestions of
  psychic experience that have their origins in
  mundane physics

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Methodological requirements

• There are a number of potential sources of
  confounding in any investigation of psi
• These are
• the observer of psi
• the experience
• the target of psi
• the barriers to prevent non-psi
• measuring instruments

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Methodological requirements

• The observer must form their judgement about
  whether or not psi has occurred solely on the
  basis of the evidence
• The experience must be free from interference and
  must demonstrate an ability that lies beyond
  physical explanation or trickery
• The target must not be known to the psychic and
  must not emit any physical signals that could be
  monitored by the psychic

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Methodological requirements

• The barriers must prevent the transmission of any
  forms of information by physical means. This is
  the biggest hurdle in many psi investigations
• The measuring instruments must be as objective as
  possible and must not be capable of being
  influenced by physical processes

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The Ganzfeld procedure

• A popular method of conducting psi research is to
  use the Ganzfeld procedure. It is a mild sensory
  isolation technique
• The receiver is placed in a comfortable chair.
  She wears headphones which play continuous white
  noise or pink noise. (White noise is a type of
  noise that is produced by combining sounds of all
  different frequencies together. If you took all
  of the imaginable tones that a human can hear and
  combined them together, you would have white
  noise. This masks any distinguishable sounds and
  virtually eliminates sensory input from sounds.
  Pink noise is white noise with the high
  frequencies left out and sounds like a
  waterfall.) Over her eyes are halves of ping-pong
  balls. A red light shines on her face. Before the
  test begins, a relaxation tape is played to put
  her in a relaxed state. After several minutes of
  the unchanging sensory field, the receiver
  allegedly achieves a state similar to being in a
  sensory isolation chamber. Hallucinations are
  commonly reported in this state.

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The Ganzfeld procedure

• In another room, an assistant has already
  selected one picture from a target pack out of a
  large pool of packs. Each pack has four pictures
  or videos that are very unlike each other. The
  target is in an opaque envelope. The experimenter
  is blind to the target. The assistant gives the
  experimenter the target envelope and the
  experimenter gives it to the sender and seals him
  in the room. The sender tries to telepathically
  communicate the target to the receiver. Breaks
  are taken and the sending process is repeated
  several times. In many of these experiments, the
  selecting of the target is automated (the
  autoganzfeld). (This was in response to Ray
  Hymans criticisms about randomization of the
  targets.) The experimenter has a direct
  communication to the receivers room and can hear
  and record everything she says, as well as
  communicate to her. The senders room is equipped
  to hear what the receiver is saying. This is
  considered feedback and is supposedly helpful
  in guiding the sender to alter his method of
  telepathic sending.
• (Extracts taken from http//skepdic.com/ganzfeld.h
  tml )

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Sheep, goats and statistics

• Sheep are believers
• Goats are non-believers
• More of their relevance in a moment
• How are we going to decide whether true psi has
  taken place?
• Look at the set of 5 Zener cards presented on the
  next slide

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Sheep, goats and statistics
I am thinking about one of these cards. Which
one am I thinking about?
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Sheep, goats and statistics

• It was this one

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Sheep, goats and statistics

• If you got that right, did you exhibit psi?
• What was the likelihood of you getting the right
  card by chance?
• We can use statistics to examine the probability
  of you scoring a particular hit rate over a large
  number of trials
• If you score significantly above chance then the
  claim could be made that you have exhibited psi
• Or could it?

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Sheep, goats and statistics

• If you are a sheep you are more likely to score
  above chance than if you are a goat
• What should we do about scores that are
  significantly below chance?
• If you are a goat you are more likely to score
  significantly below chance
• Is this psi in denial?

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Summary

• We can finish with a summary in the form of a
  series of questions
• How important is it to get the methodology right?
• How do we guard against fraud?
• How do we eliminate alternative explanations?
• How do we judge if the likelihood of the result
  by chance has been exceeded in either direction?

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Summary

• Are the rules for demonstrating psi more strict
  than they are for mainstream psychology?
• So maybe now you can formulate your own answer to
  the question
• Why is more of a fuss made about the evidence for
  psi than the evidence for other psychological
  phenomena?