ESP: TARGET QUALITIES AND PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS, THE EFFECT OF ANXIETY ON SCORING AND OBSERVER EFFECTS IN A BLIND-MATCHING TEST

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ESP: Target Qualities /Personal Relationships
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albeit perhaps a more modest one, be obtained for a group of un-
selected ESP subjects? The object of this study is to try to answer
that question and in addition to use a design by which observer
effects can be studied.
ESP: TARGET QUALITIES AND
PERSONAL RELATIONSHIPS*
THE EFFECT OF ANXIETY ON SCORING AND OBSERVER
EFFECTS IN A BLIND-MATCHING TEST WITH TARGETS OF
SPECIFIC AND EMOTIONAL IMPLICATIONS TO THE SUBJECTS
Martin U. Johnson (Parapsychology Laboratory, University
The Netherlands)
Utrecht, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht,
and Joop M. Houtkoopert (Jan Swammerdam Institute,
University of Amsterdam)
In a study carried out by Johnson and Nordbeck (JP, 1972,
122-132) based on psychodynamic ideas of "defense me differential and nisms" "censorshipa selected subject man
test ifested she switched scor-
scoring. First, during preliminary
ing direction with the turn of the psychological atmosphere, together
with a change of experimental technique, from Psl-
to psi-missing hitting (p < .05)
< .01). This was followed by a formal Blind-
Matching two types of targets. The result
Mattching hing Test Test (BMT) employing ositive appeal to
was psi-hitting on the targets having a strong, p
the subject, whereas there was strong psi-missing on the "nega-
," traumatic targets . The differential scoring between the two
tive
4
types of targets amounted to a CRd of .58 (p < .00001 , two-tailed). anamnestic The selection of the two types of targets wasbnased o and a depth
information gathered by personality diagnostic
course of the successful experiments the
used in the study
interview. During the
subject was unaware of the nature of the targets us.
The BMT was administered via closed-circuit TV, a design that
totally eliminated the possibility that olfactory cues could play a
role in the outcome of the experiment.
From the viewpoint of observational theory the BMT is very
well suited for detecting observational effects, as the subjects do
not obtain feedback about their performance, nor On theme oral
-
cards, nor on their overa score. The persons cards and matched cards are therefore
respondence between key
the first observers of the outcome and thus can be considered to
produce the paranormal effect.
*Chaired by Adrian Parker.
One hundred twenty nonpsychology students were given a
questionnaire involving questions on traumatic experiences (acci-
dents, death, illness, etc.) plus items related to very strong
positive experiences. In addition, a Dutch short form of the
Taylor Manifest Anxiety Scale (TMAS) was used. Subjects were
also asked to indicate whether they were willing to take part on a
voluntary basis in some experiments later on, in which case they
were asked to come to the Parapsychology Laboratory for a follow-
up interview and for some experiments.
Three experimenter-assistants carried out an interview focused
on traumatic experiences as well as on strongly pleasant or positive
experiences. (We wish to convey our great appreciation to Selma
Ligthart, Fred Woudenberg, and Emile van der Zee, for the help
they rendered us by taking part as experimenter-assistants.) They
rated the judged severity of the traumatic episodes by the use of a
semantic differential. Furthermore, the strengths of the three neg-
ative and the three positive episodes were also rated.
A word-recognition task was planned to validate the rated
emotional strength of the selected target words, but because of a
number of technical adversities associated with that part of the ex-
periment, the obtained data are not considered worthwhile to be
dealt with in this paper.
The Defense Mechanism Test (DMT) has in a number of stud-
ies manifested some predictive power as regards the scoring behav-
ior in so-called ESP tests (see Johnson and Haraldsson, JP, 1984,
185-200). That alone made it worthwhile to use in our study, in
spite of the fact of the complication that here an attempt is made
to influence the scoring direction by means of selection of targets.
That makes it more questionable what kind of correlation one can
expect. Because the DMT is considered to measure submanifest
anxiety it may be of interest to see if the DMT and the TMAS are
intercorrelated.
Seventy-four subjects were asked to come for a second ses-
sion. The BMT consisted of matching 24 envelopes containing
target cards against six key envelopes containing the correspond-
ing targets. There were four matching envelopes for each of the
target categories, in each of the identically looking envelopes
there was a card with the target word printed on it. All cards
were wrapped in aluminum foil in a standardized way. For each
subject the order of the envelopes within the batch had been
strictly randomized. The subject's task was to perform a forced-
choice balanced matching of the 24 envelopes against the 6 key-target
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envelopes that appeared on the screen of a closed circuit TV. Dur-
ing the matching procedure, the envelopes were put into six differ-
ent boxes corresponding to the positions of key envelopes appearing
on the TV screen, resulting in four envelopes in each of the boxes.
In order to study observer effects, we decided that the data
from the BMT should be split into two categories, Pool A (48 sub-
jects, to be observed by the first author and the three experimenter-
assistants) and Pool B (26 subjects, to be observed by two cate-
gories of external observers, "sheep" and "goats"). A strict random
procedure was followed for the designation of data into the two pools
and the subcategories within each pool.
To prepare for the evaluation of the data, the 74 batches of
matching units (key envelopes and matched envelopes) were photo-
graphed by a photographer who was naive to the purpose and
rationale of the experiment. Slides, framed and marked, were pre-
sented to the designated observers, who had to make notations of
the number of hits per slide.
The primary hypotheses in the present study concern the
replication of the differential effect for targets with different emo-
tional loadings and the possible relationship between this differential
scoring and anxiety in the subject.
Hl: The differential effect between the numbers of hits in
the emotionally positive target set versus the emotionally negative
target set. H2: Scoring on the strongest negative target. H3: The
relationship between anxiety and the differential scoring between
positive and negative target sets. As measures of anxiety we have
the scoring on the TMAS and on the short-form DMT. Therefore,
we have two hypotheses : 113a: The correlation between TMAS and
differential scoring on the BM task. H3b: The correlation between
DMT and differential scoring on the BM task.
The observational hypotheses are HO1: The differential ef-
fect as in H1 differs between the two halves of the A pool that have
been observed by the first author and the three experimenter-
assistants, respectively. H02: The overall effect in the B pool
differs between sheep observers and goat observers.
The results of the experiment are nonsignificant for each of
the hypotheses: H1: The one-sample t-test applied to the differ-
ential scoring between the emotionally positive and negative target
sets per subject results in: t = .82, 47 df, p = .4 (two-tailed).
H2: On the strongest negative target, the average number of hits
per subject is .6875, whereas mean chance expectation (MCE) is
.6667 (two-thirds). The one-sample t-test results in: t = .22,
47 df, p = .8 (two-tailed). H3a: The correlation between dif-
ferential score and the score on the TMAS results in Spearman's
rho = .117, N = 48, p = .4 (two-tailed). H3b: The correlation
between differential score and the score on the DMT results in
Spearman's rho = .074, N = 44, p = .6 (two-tailed). In 5 out of
74 cases (4 out of the 48 of Pool A) the subjects did not produce
usable DMT protocols.
Hypothesis HO1: The difference in scoring between the two
observer categories, namely the first author versus the three ex-
perimenter-assistants, is tested by a two-sample t-test: t = .27,
46 df, p = .8 (two-tailed). Hypothesis H02: The difference in
overall scoring between "sheep" observers and "goat" observers of
the data, when tested by a two-sample t-test, results in: t = 1.00,
24 df, p = .3 (two-tailed).
In an exploratory analysis, we employed the degree of trauma-
tization involved in the experiences the subjects described during
the interview procedure. We calculated Spearman's rank correlation
coefficients between:
? TMAS and number of hits on the negative target set:
rs = -.33, N = 48, p = .023.
? DMT and number of binary hits: rs = -.45, N = 44,
p = .002.
? Trauma classification and number of hits on the negative
target set: rs = -.43, N = 48, p = .002.
Intercorrelations between the psychological variables are for the 74
subjects: Between TMAS and DMT: rs = -.11; between TMAS and
trauma classification: rs = .06; between DMT and trauma:
rs = .07; none of these approaches significance.
We evaluated the overall scoring in the experiment. We find
a mean of 3.581 hits per subject, with a standard deviation of
1.767 (MCE is 4). For the 74 subjects, a one-sample t-test would
give a t of -2.04, with 73 degrees of freedom (p = .04, two-tailed).
The main conclusion is that the results of the study by John-
son and Nordbeck cannot be generalized to a population of une-
lected subjects. In the exploratory analysis we find some strong
associations between psychological variables and aspects of ESP
scoring. Trauma classification and manifest anxiety both correlate
with ESP scoring on the emotionally negative target set in the di-
rection of lower scoring (more psi-missing) being associated with
higher trauma and anxiety. The DMT correlation is in the direc-
tion of a greater number of binary hits being associated with a
higher level of submanifest anxiety (lower DMT score). This is in
contrast with the correlation of DMT scoring with total number of
hits, where the correlation amounts to an rs of +.16 (with N = 44,
p = .29, two-tailed). This indicates a scoring pattern in the
highly anxious, low DMT scorers, where matchings tend to avoid
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ionships 61
the target itself but are shifted preferentially within the same
emotional set.
According to observational theory, paranormal effects are
produced through the observation of an essentially random outcome
by a motivated human observer. This viewpoint of observational
theory is sharply distinct from the traditional viewpoint, as the ef-
fects are assumed to be produced by the checkers instead of the
subjects. The interpretation of a correlation between a trait of
the subject, say, anxiety, and his or her scoring on the ESP task
is traditionally a genuine relationship between anxiety and ESP
scoring. Observationally, such a correlation has to be regarded
as being produced by the observer of the correlation. As no feed-
back is given to the subject, it means that the checker produces
the correlation. This calls for better experimental control of the
observation procedure. The present study, entertaining both the
traditional paradigm and the observational paradigm in distinct
hypotheses, however, offers no result favoring either one of them.
Sybo A. Schouten (Parapsychology Laboratory, University of
Utrecht, Sorbonnelaan 16, 3584CA Utrecht, The Netherlands)
Professor G. Heymans (1857-1930) can be considered the
founder of the scientific and experimental approach in parapsy-
chology in the Netherlands. Internationally he is best known for
the telepathy experiment with the subject van Dam, carried out in
his Psychological Laboratory at the University of Groningen to-
gether with his assistants Brugmans and Weinberg. Less well known
are his theoretical views on paranormal phenomena and the rather
unique way by which he became involved in parapsychology.
Heymans was a philosopher and based his philosophical posi-
tion on the work of Fechner. In Fechner's ideas, which were fur-
ther developed by Heymans, the hypothesis of psychic monism or
"pan-psychism" takes a central position. Psychic monism is an off-
spring of an idealistic world view that supposes that there is only
one fundamental reality and that all physical phenomena are reduci-
ble to the mental or psychic. According to the psychic monistic
theoryyy, paranormal phenomena such as telepathy are to be expected.
In addition, the theory provides a number of predictions about vari-
ous properties of paranormal phenomena. Therefore, Heymans be-
came interested in the work of the British SPR and turned to the
parapsychological literature of his day to study whether the proper-
ties of paranormal phenomena were in agreement with the theoretical
predictions he had arrived at beforehand.
Psychic monism assumes that all phenomena are basically men-
tal and consequently assumes a "world-mind" (Welbewusstsein), that
which contains all the mental. It can be considered the equivalent
of what space is for physical matter. The world-mind is internally
perceived through awareness. The consciousness of an individual
is part of this world-mind. Consciousness can be thought of as
consisting of the individual's consciousness, which is what the indi-
vidual is aware of at a given moment, and the peripheral conscious-
ness, which contains all our memories and knowledge.
Elements of the peripheral consciousness are not isolated but
part of mental structures, complexes of related images. When hu-
man beings grow up, their consciousness develops into more strong-
ly organized mental structures of images. Because these mental
structures are based on experiences they mainly involve memories.
The peripheral consciousness consists of many of such mental struc-
tures which are in different degrees related to other structures by
associations.
The content of the individual consciousness changes regularly.
Which images enter the individual consciousness is governed by the
laws of association and depends on the nature and intensity of an
image, its emotional character, and its association with other images.
Especially strong are the perceptions, and accordingly they have a
high probability of becoming the object of awareness. Perceptions
evoke the mental structures of which they are part. Also likely to
reach consciousness are recent events, images strongly associated
with the present content of the consciousness, and strong emotions.
On the other hand, weak images of the peripheral consciousness will
only become conscious to the individual under favorable conditions;
for instance, in the absence of sensory stimulation. There is con-
stant competition among perceptions and mental structures of the
peripheral consciousness to occupy awareness.
Because nature is considered as basically mental it can be
assumed that the processes involved in the individual's conscious-
ness also apply to the world-mind. There is no fundamental dif-
ference between the two. An individual is made up of various men-
tal structures which become more and more a structural unit when
the individual develops. Such structural units, the individuals,
are in themselves again elements of a larger whole, the world-mind.
That individuals are not aware of their association with other ele-
ments of the world-mind is because in general only perceptions with
its associated mental structures and elements of one's own peripheral
consciousness will reach the individual consciousness. Since these
mental structures are familiar, because they are based on the indi-
vidual's experiences of the past, a sensation of individualism is
created. But individuals share experiences and therefore associa-
tive connections are formed in the world-mind between mental struc-
tures of different individuals. Hence, a mental image in one indi-
vddual might give rise to an associated mental structure of another
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