The Cognitive Sciences Laboratory adopts a conservative approach to the research of anomalous mental phenomena. We make the assumption that all such phenomena will eventually be understood within the context of physical science. As a consequence we question dualistic, or mystical, approaches to these presently anomalous phenomena.
Toward that end, we have adopted an engineering communication metaphor as a guide for the design of our investigations. In the language of our experimental protocol, a target transmits information through space and time to a human receiver.
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Over the years, the terminology for these parapsychological phenomena has evolved. The CSL uses these primary definitions:
Anomalous Cognition (AC) -- A form of information transfer in which all known sensorial stimuli are absent. In this process some individuals are able to gain access to information from events outside the range of their senses by a currently not understood mechanism. Several synonyms for this phenomenon are in use: Remote Viewing (RV), Clairvoyance, and ESP.
Anomalous Perturbation (AP) -- A form of interaction with matter in which all known physical mechanisms are absent. In other words, some individuals are alleged to be able to influence matter by an as yet unknown process. This phenomenon is also known Psychokinesis (PK).
Anomalous Mental Phenomena (AMP) -- A general term that includes AC and AP. This is also known as PSI.
Basic Research -- Research that is primarily oriented to understanding the mechanisms of AMP.
Applied Research -- Research that is primarily oriented towards increasing the magnitude of the effects.
Applications -- Capitalizing upon the research results, we find optimal protocols and appropriate problems for real-world solutions.
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Suppose a trials begins at 10:00 hours.
10:00 -- A monitor and a receiver are sequestered in
the
laboratory.
10:05 -- An assistant
randomly selects one target from a set of pre-defined
targets.
10:10 -- Session begins.
At this point, both the monitor and receiver are completely "blind" to the target choice; thus the monitor is free to encourage the receiver to draw and write his/hers impressions of the selected target.
10:25 -- Data collection ends.
The data are secured, and the assistant is asked to provide the target as feedback.
10:30 -- The session ends after a complete de-brief of the experience and a comparison of the data with the selected target.
Subsequently the data are assessed by an analyst who is blind to all experimental details.
We emphasize that this in not a complete description of a protocol but merely an outline of the way in which data are collected and analyzed.
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In the rank-order method, an analyst, who is blind to all the experimental details, is presented with a single response from an AC trial and a target pack which contains the intended target and a number of decoy targets. Our target packs usually contain five targets that are carefully selected to be as different from one another as possible.
Regardless of the quality of the match, the analyst must chose which of the five targets best match the response, second best match, and so on for all five targets. Under the null hypothesis (i.e., no anomalous cognition) on the average the analyst will assign the intended target a rank of three. That is some times she/he will pick the intended target better than a third place match and some of the time worse than a third place match.
Over a number of trials, we compute the average observed rank and compare it statistically to the expected average rank of 3. Typically, we see an average rank of 2 in our AC studies.
The fuzzy set method allows the analyst to express the degree to which a concept is present in the target and response rather than being forced into a "yes" or "no" decision.
For example a target concept might be city . A photograph of Manhattan would receive a one on a 0-1 scale; whereas, a village on the banks of a river might only receive a 0.3 on the same scale. Likewise a response that showed buildings and streets and was labeled "city" would receiver a one for city, while another response with only a cross-hatched drawing would only be assigned a value of 0.2.
Currently our fuzzy set descriptor list is 130 elements long ranging from simple geometric factors to high-level concepts such as fort.
Three quantities are defined for analysis:
Accuracy -- The percent of the target that was
described correctly.
Reliability -- The percent of the response that was
correct.
Figure of Merit (FM) -- The product of accuracy times
reliability.
To obtain a large figure of merit, the sizable fraction of the target must be described with very little incorrect material in the response. A probability statistic is obtained by computing an FM for all targets in the pool and using a rank-order analysis for the FM of the intended target.
An assessment rating differs from a rank-order in that an attempt is made to determine the degree to which a response matches a target (i.e., decoy or intended). We currently use an 8-point scale where 8 implies a near-perfect match and a zero means that nothing in the response matches the target. Each level is defined by a declarative statement that must be satisfied before that level can be assigned as a rating.
In an experiment, no statistical analysis can be used with the raw ratings, but they can be used appropriately either to rank-order targets based upon the rating or as a variable in a correlation study. For example, how does an AC response depend upon a physical property of a target?
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