Ganzfeld-ESP: Pondering Three Reports and Looking Ahead1

Performance at a Precognitive Remote Viewing Task, With and Without Ganzfeld Stimulation: Three Experiments" (Roe et al., 2020) This is a well written, thoughtful report on a carefully planned and executed series of three deliberately very similar studies intended to allow comparison of results...

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Bibliographic Details
Published in:The Journal of parapsychology 2020-04, Vol.84 (1), p.14-20
Main Author: Stanford, Rex G
Format: Article
Language:English
Subjects:
Asymmetry
Consciousness
Design
Hypnosis
Success
Validity
Variables
Online Access:Get full text
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Summary:Performance at a Precognitive Remote Viewing Task, With and Without Ganzfeld Stimulation: Three Experiments" (Roe et al., 2020) This is a well written, thoughtful report on a carefully planned and executed series of three deliberately very similar studies intended to allow comparison of results from two well-known extrasensory research paradigms, ganzfeld and remote viewing (within-subjects design) and to assess the possible role of internal attention states in extrasensory performance. Despite the much acclaimed value of same-subjects designs relative to effort, cost, and statistical power (but re. power, see major caveat" below), there are several reasons why using, instead, a between-subjects design (i.e., random assignment to conditions) allows a clearer conceptual understanding of the consequences of the experimental manipulation. [...]Poulton (1982) provided a series of meticulously explained examples of how one particular, but widely manifest, type of AOT (related to test-taking strategies) might have produced confounding in published cognitive psychology studies of several kinds, leading to unjustified conceptual interpretation of the independent-variable outcomes. The bottom line regarding choice of design: between- or within- subjects: A well-designed, thoughtfully large-sample, random-assignment study stands a good chance of illuminating the consequence(s) of a given independent-variable condition (or level, if quantitative) in its own right and can support examination of the comparability of outcomes across independent-variable conditions (or levels); but (b) one cannot justifiably assume that the same kinds (and/or magnitudes) of outcomes will occur if one uses, instead, a within-subjects design.
ISSN:0022-3387
DOI:10.30891/jopar2020.01.04