Establishing methodological guidelines for ESP studies: A questionnaire survey of experimenters' and critics' consensus

Journal/Book: J Parapsychol. 1996; 60: PO Box 6847, College Station, Durham, NC 27708. Parapsychology Press. 289-334.

Abstract: Recommendations and critiques concerning methodological safeguards in ESP experiments are currently widely scattered throughout the literature, with little indication from the community of experimenters or critics of how important particular safeguards are, or how they should be implemented and reported. This paper reports the results of a questionnaire survey of the parapsychological research community's views concerning the importance of various methodological safeguards in ESP experiments. I carried out an extensive literature survey of recommendations for safeguards against error, information leakage, and participant fraud in ESP experiments. A questionnaire based on this literature survey was mailed to 94 researchers who had published an ESP experiment, and/or commentary criticising ESP research methodology in the previous ten years, in order to determine their opinion on which safeguard procedures are necessary to conduct and report in ESP studies. The response rate was 30%, and it was possible to examine separately the responses of two groups of special interest, namely, those respondents who have served as referees for parapsychology journals, and those who have refereed ESP experiment papers for non-parapsychology journals.

Note: Article Milton J, Univ Edinburgh, Dept Psychol, 7 George Sq, Edinburgh EH8 9JZ, Midlothian, SCOTLAND

Keyword(s): PSI RESEARCH; GANZFELD; METAANALYSIS; ARTIFACT

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