The effects of experimenter-participant interaction qualities in a goal-oriented nonintentional precognition task

Several recent studies, inspired by psi theories such as Stanford’s psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) model, have employed a tacit precognition protocol to test the notion that extrasensory perception may be nonintentional. After remarkable initial success, outcomes have been more inconsistent. One possible reason for the observed variability in results is that the studies were conducted by different experimenters. The current study therefore addressed a number of dimensions regarding participants’ interaction with either a male or female experimenter. 52 participants took part in 12 nonintentional precognition trials and a positive or negative outcome task contingent on their performance. The total number of precognitive hits was marginally above mean chance expectation but failed to reach statistical significance. There were significant positive correlations between participants’ precognition scores and their ratings of the positivity of their interaction with the experimenter, their rapport with the experimenter, and their level of relaxation. There were also notable differences between the two experimenters with respect to the relationships between their participant-experimenter interaction ratings and participants’ tacit precognition scores; all correlations were in the predicted direction for the female experimenter, but in the opposite direction for the male experimenter

The relationship between lability and performance at intentional and non-intentional versions of an implicit PMIR-type psi task

A number of theories of psi such as Stanford’s Psi-mediated Instrumental Response (PMIR) model suggest psi can function without a person’s awareness, and that their intent to exhibit psi may be counterproductive. However, few parapsychological studies have directly compared participants’ performance at intentional and non-intentional versions of equivalent tasks. This study sought to address this issue whilst exploring the role of lability, suggested by Stanford to be predictive of a person’s propensity to respond to extrasensory stimuli. Fifty participants took part in both intentional and non-intentional versions of a 10-trial, binary, forced choice precognition task. A contingent outcome task system involving positive pictures as reward for hit trials and negative pictures as punishment for miss trials was administered on a trial-by-trial basis. Participants scored marginally fewer hits than the mean chance expectation in both versions of the task, with no tangible difference in their performance between tasks. Furthermore, no relationship was found between the number of precognitive hits they achieved and their scores on a composite psychometric measure of lability, nor its constituent elements. However, participants’ expectations that their luck could aid their performance, as well as their emotional reactivity, were positively related to their tacit psi scores

The Relationship Between Latent Inhibition and Performance at a Non-intentional Precognition Task

Context Many spontaneous cases of extra-sensory perception (ESP) seem to occur without the conscious intent of the experient to manifest any anomalous phenomena. Indeed, Stanford׳s psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) theory, which frames ESP as a goal-oriented function, goes as far as to suggest that such intent may be counterproductive to psi. Objectives The present study was the latest to build on the successful paradigm developed by Luke and colleagues in testing the non-intentional psi hypothesis and potential covariates of psi task success. This study focused on the ability of latent inhibition—an organism׳s cognitive tendency to filter out apparently irrelevant information—to predict an individual׳s sensitivity to psi stimuli. Method A total of 50 participants completed a two-part auditory discrimination performance measure of latent inhibition; a battery of questionnaires; and a 15-trial, binary, forced-choice, non-intentional precognition task. They were then either positively or negatively rewarded via images from subsets that they had pre-rated, seeing more images from their preferred subsets the better they performed at the psi task and vice versa. Results Participants scored a mean hit rate of 7.96 [mean chance expectation (MCE) = 7.50], which just failed to reach a statistically significant level, t(48) = 1.62, P = .06, one-tailed, ESr (effect size correlation) = 0.23. However, latent inhibition was found to be unrelated to participants׳ precognitive performance

Testing the theory of morphic resonance using recognition for Chinese symbols: a failure to replicate

Rupert Sheldrake’s theory of morphic resonance suggests a means by which the thoughts or behaviours of a species contribute to a collective ‘morphogenetic field’ that can encourage future organisms to prefer those thoughts and behaviours that had been selected most frequently. Sheldrake has argued that an individual’s acquisition of language could thus be influenced by the morphic resonance of past speakers of that language, and this has enabled researchers to empirically test the theory using learning activities that involve a language unfamiliar to the participant. For example, Robbins and Roe (2010) gave participants a set of Chinese symbols to learn and found that they correctly recalled more genuine characters (for which a morphogenetic field would presumably exist) than imitative characters (for which one would not), as predicted by Sheldrake’s theory. However, potential shortcomings were identified within the experimental design, and so the current study was intended to replicate earlier findings with a more robust research design that used a more comprehensive system of randomising across participants. An opportunity sample of 101 participants were shown, in a randomised order, 8 genuine and 8 imitative characters. They then took part in a distractor task by playing ‘scissors-paper-stone’ against a computer opponent for 1 minute. Subsequently, participants were presented with symbols in pairs (one genuine and one imitative) matched for complexity and radical component (a key element of the character) and were asked to indicate if they recalled seeing either character at the presentation stage. For some trials, participants had previously seen one of the characters whereas in others, both symbols were novel. Participants correctly identified a similar number of real and imitative characters, whereas they exhibited more false memories for the imitative characters. Furthermore, the proposed relationships between the purported morphic resonance effect and transliminality and openness to experience were not supported. These findings fail to confirm those reported by Robbins and Roe (2010) and support an explanation in terms of methodological artifac

The influence of latent inhibition on performance at a non-intentional precognition task

A property of spontaneous cases of extra-sensory perception, as opposed to those manually instigated, is the lack of conscious intention of the experient or exhibitant to manifest any kind of anomalous phenomena. Despite the wealth of spontaneous case report of ESP phenomena which have been collected by parapsychological researchers, experimental research has often involved asking participants to wilfully manifest anomalous cognition. However, some theories of ESP, such as Stanford‘s psi-mediated instrumental response (PMIR) model predict that such conscious behaviours and cognitions may be counterproductive to the psi process. As a result, recent research, including most notably studies by Luke and colleagues, have included tacit precognition tasks in which psi component of the study is disguised as a conventional psychological test. The paradigm developed by Luke and colleagues involves an image preference task, in which participants are asked to select their preferred images from a series of options. Participants are unaware that this actually constitutes a tacit, forced choice precognition task, with the computer making a random selection of a target image from the response options, which participants‘ selections being scored as a hit or a miss on the basis of whether they match with the computer‘s selections. Stanford‘s model also suggests that psi is goal oriented, helping individuals to achieve rewards and/or avoid punishments. In the Luke studies, participants are consequently either 'punished‘ or 'rewarded‘ based on their precognitive performance in relation to the mean chance expectation. The studies carried out by Luke and colleagues produced highly significant evidence of a non-intentional precognition effect. An attempted replication by Hitchman, Roe and Sherwood was encouraging but inconclusive in relation to the main psi hypothesis and a number of individual difference covariates predicted with Stanford‘s writings. The present study incorporated a number of methodological refinements, whilst focusing on the relationship between performance at the non-intentional psi task and latent inhibition, a factor predicted to influence an individual‘s sensitivity to psi stimuli. Latent inhibition reflects an organism‘s tendency to filter out information from the cognitive system that it has learned is irrelevant to its on-going concerns. However, it is relatively time consuming to measure experimentally, and previous studies had assessed the construct indirectly via a proxy questionnaire measure of Openness to Experience. Encouraged by the suggestive results using such indirect measures, the present study employed a more direct performance measure of latent inhibition in conjunction with a 15-trial non-intentional precognition task. 50 participants completed a two-part auditory discrimination task which gave an measure of their latent inhibition, before proceeding to complete a battery of questionnaires and a binary, forced choice, tacit psi task. They were subsequently either positively or negatively rewarded via images from subsets which participants has pre-rated, with more images from their preferred subsets being shown the better they performed and vice-versa. The results were suggestive of a non-intentional recognition effect, with participants scoring a mean hit rate of 7.96, where 7.5 would be expected by chance, although their outperformance just failed to reach a statistically significant level, t(48) = 1.62, p = .06, one-tailed. However, no evidence was found in support of the predicted internal effects, with both latent inhibition and Openness to Experience found to be unrelated to participants‘ precognitive performance. These findings are interpreted within the context of previous research and Stanford‘s PMIR mode

A re-examination of nonintentional precognition with openness to experience, creativity, psi beliefs, and luck beliefs as predictors of success

The notion that psi may be able to function without conscious intent and mediate adaptive consequences is a feature of several theories of psi. In particular, Stanford's "Psi-mediated Instrumental Response" (PMIR) model predicts that psi can operate without conscious awareness, facilitating advantageous outcomes by triggering preexisting behaviours in response to opportunities or threats in the environment. Luke and colleagues tested elements of this model over 4 studies involving an implicit, forced-choice precognition task in which participants were positively or negatively rewarded based on their performance in relation to the MCE. The 4 studies combined yielded significant evidence of an implicit precognition effect. The present study attempted to replicate this precognition effect using a more refined contingent reward system employing images from the International Affective Picture System. The number of trials per participant was increased to enhance statistical power, whereas all other design elements remained consistent with the original studies. Fifty participants achieved a tacit precognition hit rate marginally greater than the MCE, but the extent of their out-performance was not significant. Nevertheless, together with Luke and colleagues' 4 studies, the combined effect size remains significant (Stouffer Z = 3.25, p = 0.001). Findings are interpreted in relation to Stanford's PMIR mode