On the psychology of paranormal belief and experience

The aim of the present dissertation is to contribute to the understanding of putative paranormal beliefs and experiences. The introduction provides a conceptual analysis of past research into the paranormal and establishes the rationale for our decision to focus on a specific type of paranormal experience – precognitive dreams. The dissertation evaluates several different hypotheses that have been proposed to account for such experiences. Chapter II describes an online dream precognition study testing the so-called psi hypothesis (Study 1). Participants (N = 50) collected details of their dreams over four weekly periods. Independent judges rated the similarity of the dream reports to randomly selected target and decoy video clips. Compared to the chance baseline of 50 hits out of 200 trials, the obtained 64 hits was significantly more than could be expected under the null hypothesis. However, based on a post hoc exploration of the data, we concluded that Study 1 yielded no evidence of any anomalous cognition within participants’ dreams. It did, however, illustrate the potential theoretical and methodological issues with the psi hypothesis and the way it is habitually assessed. Chapter III focuses on explanations of putative precognitive dreams in terms of unconscious cognition. Two studies test the hypothesis that precognitive dreams arise as a result of unconscious inferences about likely future events based on subtle cues from the environment perceived in the absence of awareness. Study 2 explores individual differences in implicit processing and their relationship to precognitive dream belief and experience. Participants (N = 50) completed the serial reaction time task as well as a series of questionnaire measures. Contrary to prediction, no relationship was found between precognitive dream experience – or belief – and implicit task performance. Following these null findings, Study 3 tested another prediction of the same hypothesis. Participants (N = 49) completed a modified change detection task. The modification allowed for assessing explicit and implicit change detection separately. The results of Study 3 did not support the hypothesis, as the measure of explicit change detection was not related to precognitive dream experience. They did, however, provide a conceptual replication of the findings of Study 2, since we again found no relationship between implicit detection and precognitive dream experience. On a large sample of participants (N = 672), Study 4, reported in Chapter IV, explores several demographic and sleep- and dream-related variables and their relationship with precognitive dream belief and experience. We hypothesised that precognitive dream experience is associated with erratic patterns of sleep behaviour. Consistent with this hypothesis, we found that a higher subjective frequency of precognitive dreams was associated with more nocturnal awakenings, higher dream recall, lower overall sleep quality, and a higher likelihood of using sleep medication. We also explored the demographic factors of precognitive dream belief and experience, namely gender, age and education. Women were more likely to believe in the reality of precognitive dreams as well as report experiencing them. And there was a negative relationship between completed years of formal education and the precognitive dream variables. Frequency of these experiences was positively related to age. Moreover, we predicted that both precognitive dream belief and experience would be positively related to the subjective importance ascribed to one’s dreams in general. We found support for this hypothesis. Finally, the study investigated the relationship between the belief in and the experience of precognitive dreams. Although, as could be expected, we found these two to be strongly positively related, we argued that this relationship is not sufficient to gloss over the conceptual distinction. In order to further develop our line of research, we identify a need for a new measurement tool addressing attitudes towards one’s precognitive dream experiences. Study 5, reported in Chapter V, concerns the development and validation of such a tool. A sample of people who reported having had a precognitive dream experience (N = 330) completed an initial 49-item questionnaire. After removing items with unsatisfactory psychometric characteristics an exploratory factor analysis coupled with exploratory structural equation modelling revealed a well-interpretable 5-factor structure with good internal consistency. Additional variables collected on the sample were subsequently used to test the validity of the derived subscales. Overall, the predicted relationships were confirmed by the analyses, which indicates both convergent and divergent/discriminant validity of the questionnaire. Importantly, we found that personal significance of one’s precognitive dreams was related to the frequency with which they are experienced. The final empirical chapter, Chapter VI, explores the relationship between precognitive dream belief and experience, their personal significance, and memory. Study 6 tested three hypotheses: earliest precognitive dream experiences would tend to date to a period of identity formation in one’s life; the vividness of the memory of this earliest experience would correlate with the frequency of precognitive dream experience; and this relationship would be accounted for by the personal significance ascribed to one’s precognitive dreams. All three hypotheses were supported. Finally, Chapter VII summarises the findings of the six studies conducted for this dissertation. We discuss our results in the context of the existing literature and highlight the main theoretical, methodological, and empirical contributions of our research. Directions for future research are also provided

Comparison of the lighting condition of the interior to create a 3D background in virtual reality

This article deals with capturing the image in the gallery's interior with a 3D camera in different lighting conditions. Currently, 3D backgrounds are a standard part of modelling and virtual reality. There are several ways to create a background, and there are various high-resolution 3D scanning devices. This study deals with capturing an image in the interior of a gallery with a 3D camera in different lighting conditions. The text lists the fundamental properties of light and lighting. The parameters and possibilities of capturing the image with a 3D camera are also described. The article further describes the indoor lighting conditions in the interior when using a 3D camera and compares the lighting conditions and their effect on the quality of the captured image and the goal of obtaining the best possible quality of the captured image. © 2021 Danube Adria Association for Automation and Manufacturing, DAAAM. All rights reserved

Tribological Behaviour of Enamel Coatings Created by a Prototype Device for Local Repair of Inorganic Surfaces

The ability of materials to withstand environmental influences is a frequent necessity in many industries. Special requirements are imposed by such industries where surfaces are affected by acidity during the processing or storage of products. In such cases, when the basic surface is exposed to chemical influences, it is possible to use enamel coatings, which, with their properties, guarantee the protection of the surface and achieve the required service life of the material. This article deals mainly with the interaction between the base material and the enamel and its resistance to wear between the original and the renovated surface caused by local heating. The article presents a methodical procedure for the preparation of test specimens with an enamel layer prepared by AWJ cutting, eliminating its damage. There are minimal differences in the microstructure between the original and the renovated surface due to the production technique. The renovated enamel surface had more bubbles of a larger size than the original surface. Good adhesion between the base metal material (substrate) and the ground coat was demonstrated. The tested surfaces demonstrated high resistance to intensive abrasion conditions with low linear wear increments

Reliability testing of software designed to detect people

In connection with the solution of the security situation in the world, artificial intelligence has been intensively used in recent years, which can process and solve complex problems with the help of high computer performance, data volume and machine learning algorithms. The field of face recognition and object detection has not lagged behind in this area and makes extensive use of artificial intelligence in its algorithms. The work presents the possibilities of obtaining data for the detection of persons by camera systems, at the same time the individual algorithms for face detection and identification of persons are presented. Attention is paid to the analysis of current software manufacturers for Face Recognition with subsequent testing of two separate programs and one software, which is a product of the manufacturer of camera systems. © 2022 IEEE

SARS-CoV-2 wastewater surveillance in the Czech Republic: Spatial and temporal differences in SARS-CoV-2 RNA concentrations and relationship to clinical data and wastewater parameters

This study presents the results of systematic wastewater monitoring of SARS-CoV-2 RNA and basic wastewater parameters from four different wastewater treatment plants (WWTPs) in the Czech Republic over the 2020–2022 epidemic. Two-step reverse-transcription quantitative PCR targeting genes encoding the N and Nsp12 proteins was employed to detect SARS-CoV-2 RNA loading in 420 wastewater samples. The results obtained were used to evaluate the potential of wastewater analysis for describing the epidemiological situation in cities of different sizes and determining temporal differences based on the prevailing SARS-CoV-2 variant. Strong correlations between the number of active and hospitalised COVID‐19 cases in each WWTP catchment area and the concentration of SARS-CoV-2 RNA detected in the wastewater clearly demonstrated the suitability of this wastewater-based epidemiological approach for WWTPs of different sizes and characteristics, despite differences in SARS-CoV-2 variant waves, with some WWTPs showing high predictive potential. This study demonstrated on the data from the Czech Republic that targeted systematic monitoring of wastewater provides sufficiently robust data for surveillance of viral loads in sample populations, and thus contributes to preventing the spread of infection and subsequent introduction of appropriate measures

Data from: Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science

This record contains the underlying research data for the publication "Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science" and the full-text is available from: https://ink.library.smu.edu.sg/lkcsb_research/5257Reproducibility is a defining feature of science, but the extent to which it characterizes current research is unknown. We conducted replications of 100 experimental and correlational studies published in three psychology journals using high-powered designs and original materials when available. Replication effects were half the magnitude of original effects, representing a substantial decline. Ninety-seven percent of original studies had statistically significant results. Thirty-six percent of replications had statistically significant results; 47% of original effect sizes were in the 95% confidence interval of the replication effect size; 39% of effects were subjectively rated to have replicated the original result; and if no bias in original results is assumed, combining original and replication results left 68% with statistically significant effects. Correlational tests suggest that replication success was better predicted by the strength of original evidence than by characteristics of the original and replication teams