Ganzfeld Flashcards
What does ESP stand for?
Extra sensory perception
Who designed the Ganzfeld procedure?
Honorton
What did Honorton do?
Design the Ganzfeld procedure and conduct a meta-analysis of 28 Ganzfeld studies
What is the Ganzfeld procedure based on?
The assumption that everyone is capable of ESP, but in most of us the ESP signal is weak and is ‘drowned out’ by the input from our sense
What is the aim of the Ganzfeld procedure?
The test telepathy in a controlled, scientific manner and to reduce the interference from our sense by putting someone in a state of sensory deprivation to allow ESP images to come through
What is the method of the Ganzfeld procedure?
There are two participants, a sender and a receiver.
The receiver is placed in the room alone and is told to relax in a comfortable chair. Halved ping pong balls are placed over their eyes and a red light is shone onto their face. They also wear headphones which play white noise so that they experience sensory deprivation. This ensures that signals received by the participants come from their mind, not from audible or visible stimulus.
The sender is in another room and chooses a card from a pack of Zener cards and a attempts to mentally transmit the shape to the receiver
The receiver has to concentrate on the mental imagery that forms in their mind and say which card has been transmitted.
The results are recorded and when the procedure is finished the researchers collate the data for analysis.
In the data analysis section the researchers calculate whether that amount of correct answers significantly deviate from chance - (atleast 20% should be correct)
What happens to the receiver in the Ganzfeld procedure?
The receiver is placed in the room alone and is told to relax in a comfortable chair. Halved ping pong balls are placed over their eyes and a red light is shone onto their face. They also wear headphones which play white noise so that they experience sensory deprivation. This ensures that signals received by the participants come from their mind, not from audible or visible stimulus.
The receiver has to concentrate on the mental imagery that forms in their mind and say which card has been transmitted.
What happens to the sender in the Ganzfeld procedure?
The sender is in another room and chooses a card from a pack of Zener cards and a attempts to mentally transmit the shape to the receiver
What is the final stage of the Ganzfeld procedure?
The results are recorded and when the procedure is finished the researchers collate the data for analysis.
In the data analysis section the researchers calculate whether that amount of correct answers significantly deviate from chance - (atleast 20% should be correct)
Briefly, what are the stages of the Ganzfeld procedure?
Receiver and sender in different rooms
Receiver listens to white noise, has halves of ping pong balls placed over eyes, has red light shine onto face (sensory deprivation)
Sender selects a card from Zener cards and attempts to mentally transmit it
Results are recorded
Results collated for analysis - does result significantly deviate from chance?
Who carried out Ganzfeld studies?
Honorton
What were Honortons findings?
He reported a 38% success rate of the 28 Ganzfeld studies involved in his meta-analysis. (A performance of 25% was expected). Honorton concluded that this provided evidence for the existence of ESP ability.
What is the problem with Honorton’s study?
Honorton himself designed the Ganzfeld procedure so investigator bias may have affected the results. He may have disregarded some of the results which did not credit the procedure in order to provide evidence for ESP ability. Those researching the opinion usually have some opinion on it.
28 studies is also a small sample, it could be that these participants/ results were just flukes.
What did Hyman do?
Challenge Honorton and claimed there were serious flaws in the studies in that they were unscientific due to the lack of control and potential for fraudulent activity. He suggested the positive results were due to a sensory leakage such as the receiver hearing an exchange between the sender and experimenter
What is ESP?
Extra sensory perception refers to the perception of objects or events without any of the known physical senses being involved
What did Hyman and Honorton do?
Adapted the Ganzfeld procedure to increase the scientific credibility of it
What is the autoganzfeld technique?
An updated version of the Ganzfeld procedure to increase the scientific credibility of it. Now the card is randomly selected by a computer and the results are recorded by a computer. The researcher is kept separate from the participants and only analyses the data.
What study is linked to the autoganzfeld technique?
Bem and Honorton
What was Bem and Honortons procedure?
They carried out a meta analysis of 11 autoganzfeld studies. The research used was selected on the basis that they stuck to the very strict experimental procedures e.g compute administration, sound proofed rooms one way intercom communication, led lined walls.
How was the research in Bem and Honortons study selected?
The research used was selected on the basis that they stuck to the very strict experimental procedures e.g compute administration, sound proofed rooms one way intercom communication, led lined walls.
What were Bem and Honortons findings?
We would expect a 25% hit rate as the receivers were selecting one image from four.
Hit rates ranged from 24% to 54%
The average percentage was 32.5%
What do Bem and Honortons findings suggest?
That telepathy does exist
What is forced choice?
Forced choice is when you select one of the options provided
What is free choice?
When you imagine anything and the receiver has to guess
