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

Anticipatory Saccades Towards the Future Consequences of One’s Actions – an Online Eye Tracking Study

When an action contingently yields a predictable effect, we form bi-directional action-effect associations that allow us to anticipate both the location and timing of our actions’ effects. This is evident in anticipatory eye movements towards the future effect’s location which are performed earlier when the effect’s delay is short rather than long. Such anticipatory eye movements reflect a proactive process of effect monitoring which prepares a comparison of expected and actual effects. Here, in two online eye tracking experiments, we manipulated effect locations (spatially compatible vs. incompatible in one half) and effect delays (short vs. long) to determine whether in-laboratory effects could be reliably replicated online using participants’ individual webcams. Extending prior research, we further compared irrelevant (Experiment 1) to relevant effects (response to effect feature; Experiment 2). In contrast to prior in-laboratory studies, participants anticipatorily looked towards future effects above chance only when effects were relevant. Post-experiment questions suggested that online-participants intentionally ignore irrelevant information to optimize task performance. Nevertheless, replicating in-laboratory experiments, both for relevant and irrelevant effects, participants’ first saccade towards a future effect occurred earlier for the short rather than the long effect delay. Thus, we demonstrate that anticipatory eye movements reflecting a time-sensitive proactive effect monitoring process can reliably be assessed both in-laboratory as well as online. However, when investigating anticipatory saccade frequencies online, additional aspects like effect relevance have to be considered

Attentional capture by future events : Anticipatory saccades towards salient and non-salient action consequences are influenced by individual exogenous and endogenous attention

When our actions contingently yield predictable effects, we bi-directionally associate action and effect. Anticipating desired effects then allows us both to select and plan corresponding actions and to proactively shift our attention towards the location of our action's future effect. Such anticipatory saccades are thought to reflect a proactive effect monitoring process that prepares a later comparison of expected and actual effect. Here, we examined how the saliency (luminance, colour contrast, and flicker frequency) of future visual effects of participants' forced-choice left/right key presses influences anticipatory saccades towards them. Furthermore, we assessed individual differences in exogenous (pro-saccade) and endogenous (anti-saccade) attentional orienting in following phases of the experiment in which the salient and non-salient effect (target) stimuli occurred unpredictably at the prior effect locations. Surprisingly, participants were slower to manually produce future salient as compared to non-salient effects and this was modulated by individual differences in exogenous and endogenous attentional orienting. Crucially, the frequency of anticipatory saccades towards participants' actions' future visual effects was modulated by interactions of action-effect compatibility, effect saliency, and participants ́ individual exogenous/endogenous attentional orienting. These findings demonstrate that a person ́s individual exogenous and endogenous attentional orienting can affect the proactive monitoring of their actions ́ future effects and thereby impact on goal-directed action control

Anticipatory Saccades towards the Future Consequences of One’s Actions : an Online Eye Tracking Study

When an action contingently yields a predictable effect, we form bi-directional action-effect associations that allow us to anticipate both the location and timing of our actions’ effects. This is evident in anticipatory eye movements towards the future effect’s location which are performed earlier when the effect’s delay is short rather than long. Such anticipatory eye movements reflect a proactive process of effect monitoring which prepares a comparison of expected and actual effects. Here, in two online eye tracking experiments, we manipulated effect locations (spatially compatible vs. incompatible in one half) and effect delays (short vs. long) to determine whether in-laboratory effects could be reliably replicated online using participants’ individual webcams. Extending prior research, we further compared irrelevant (Experiment 1) to relevant effects (response to effect feature; Experiment 2). In contrast to prior in-laboratory studies, participants anticipatorily looked towards future effects above chance only when effects were relevant. Post-experiment questions suggested that online-participants intentionally ignore irrelevant information to optimize task performance. Nevertheless, replicating in-laboratory experiments, both for relevant and irrelevant effects, participants’ first saccade towards a future effect occurred earlier for the short rather than the long effect delay. Thus, we demonstrate that anticipatory eye movements reflecting a time-sensitive proactive effect monitoring process can reliably be assessed both in-laboratory as well as online. However, when investigating anticipatory saccade frequencies online, additional aspects like effect relevance have to be considered