Are you interested in the results of my experiment?

Question

Thank you all who participated in my experiment. I did not recieve any correct responses. I am not going to make any smart alec comments about this because I genuinely appreciate everyone who helped me out on this. All the questions I posted in regards to this, along with peoples responses are here:

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20080618181014AACeJXQ

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/?qid=20080620174655AAMJxWW

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AtegqQVt5uiVBU3AXT1kQpHty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080621104819AAHo39A

http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AnDl7Y6ojdh_fm8cLX1XZD3ty6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080621113133AAC19YY

I was also emailed several responses: tyquniaum1=giraffe or hippo, January Jane=grizzly or zebra

As some sort of control group I asked people in the zoology section to give me a random list of animals they didn't get it either http://answers.yahoo.com/question/index;_ylt=AgiSkVpmIse8xJyS4jQlej3sy6IX;_ylv=3?qid=20080621113608AAOO4qm

Answer 1

The Answer Is Simple..............

Answer 2

While I appreciate your experimental approach there are some basic mistakes in your experiment. Perhaps the most glaring is your rendering statistical evaluation impossible by using an open ended target (choosing among any animal).

This is why early psychical researchers and later parapsychologist went to cards (with a limited number of symbols, numbers and colors) and then even to the 5 symbol Zener cards so that odds against chance could be more easily calculated. Most Ganzfeld experiments also come down to choosing among a limited number pictures that are presented to the receiver to choose from after his/her impressions. Thus, the accepted evidence criteria of p<.05 (less than 5% it is due to chance) is rendered impossible to calculate in your test.

This criticism was made early on against Upton Sinclair is his drawing/ESP experiments with his wife.

Thus, if you had presented a limited number of animals to choose from the beginning or even after the impressions had been received than statistical evaluation would have been possible.

This is also a problem in Remote Viewing Research (entirely open ended) and is usually dealt with again (during experiments) in having a limited number of possible targets and then having people (not associated in any other way with the experiment) listen to the taped sessions of the Remote Viewers and then try to match those transcripts to the actual target. Of course experimentally one target has been chosen so it can be calculated among the other limited number targets offered for consideration.

Thus, you could have independent judges try to match e-mail descriptions to a target among a limited amount of offered targets.

Your use of a control group was an excellent idea and I think should be used more in parapsychology. Of course it could only be used with subjects with some characteristic that is being claimed to be better at psi. A control group for an ability that is said to occur in the normal population with normal distribution is not actually possible given no other variable.

Again I applaud your attempt at an experimental approach and would encourage you to continue this type of experiment, questions & answers here in the alternative section.

I have included some links below that will allow to review some of scientific research literature in parapsychology so you can improve your experiments in the future (as parapsychology has done for more than 50 years).

Psi

Answer 3

Apologies for the email I sent earlier...I thought you'd be posting results as an edit to your initial question. This was quite instructive for me and I honestly appreciate your open-minded approach.

Answer 4

I didn't participate, but I encourage this sort of inquiry--keep up the good work. (Why didn't I say camel??)

Answer 5

Great job. It is good to hear someone putting in some effort about this subject and not just blindly shooting off at mouth about their own opinions (like I often do!!)

Oh and a camel - wow that is something that someone could have guessed easily! But they didn't!

Cheers,

Good Work!!

Answer 6

Are the camel's legs tied so he doesn't run away?

Answer 7

Yeah, I'm interested - ya know even if I don't think I'm psychic it still would have been cool to have happened to have guessed it :-)

And I googled images for wildlife in the state you live in too.

Edit

I'm surprised no one picked a camel just by chance they are a very common animal.

I suppose you know if your results are less that what would be statistically expected that it can also considered paranormal?

Jane, yes the legs are probably hobbled, if you are in the middle of nowhere you can let the animal off to graze without it being able to run away quickly.

Answer 8

yeah i'm surprised no one guessed camel. If you were REALLY interested in finding out if some one could guess the animal you were looking at, you could make a blog and every week at a certain time look at an animal. It would also be wise to put a 3 or 4 digit number some where on the picture, because some one would obviously guess the animal at some point.

Answer 9

<<Are you interested in the results of my experiment?>>

No.

<< I did not recieve any correct responses.>>

That's a good reason for my non-interest.

Answer 10

It was a great idea.I'm not surprised at the outcome.If you asked people to describe their astral travels.They'd tell you about all kinds of adventures.Outer space,finding lost civilizations that's all easy for them.Once again we are left with one conclusion.They are all paranormal boasters.I say that with no animosity.I really would like one of them to actually do it.

Answer 11

GOOD JOB!

Answer 12

So what was the animal? sorry you posted after I asked

Answer 13

NO

Hey why the thumbs down. You asked a question I gave a straight answer or do you want me to lie.

Answer 14

Call me a cynic, but I was disappointed at how few went into apologetics...but then my wish was fulfilled.  Ah, you gotta love it.

Answer 15

Well that was fun...kind of. ;) Camel was nowhere on my mind at any point. I have never been good at "prove your psychic" sort of things so I'm not disappointed. I certainly hope that you aren't either. I just wish you would have gotten more participants though. I think that the person who thought it was a tan horse came pretty close.

Answer 16

well done though for excellent attempt

Answer 17

The answer to your question is no, I don't care. But I will tell you why you forced your test to fail. You thwarted your chances of getting the correct answer by not giving the correct feedback.