Lecture Notes Week 6 Consctiousness PDF

Summary

These lecture notes cover the topic of consciousness, specifically focusing on parapsychological phenomena such as extrasensory perception (ESP), including topics like Clairvoyance, Telepathy, and Precognition. The notes also discuss beliefs in ESP, experiments, and various hypotheses related to these phenomena.

Full Transcript

Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness Second part of the lecture Parapsychologcal phenomena Psi — unidentified psychological ability to Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Clairvoyance: Transfer of information that is both contemporar...

Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness Second part of the lecture Parapsychologcal phenomena Psi — unidentified psychological ability to Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Clairvoyance: Transfer of information that is both contemporary to, and hidden from, the clairvoyant. Telepathy: Transfer of information on thoughts or feelings between individuals by means other than the five classical senses. Precognition: Perception of places or events before they happen. Belief in ESP A survey of 1,000 Americans: 50% believe in ESP. Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness 1 25% think they have communicated via ESP (Gallup and Newport, 1991). A survey of 6,000 British individuals: 59% believe in ESP (higher among women than men). Special Psi sessions are held at major scientific conferences. In NL Spontaneous ESP Phenomena How Spontaneous Phenomena Change with Time From demons to witches to aliens.Explanations: Infrasound. Work of Tandy and Wiseman. Purcell Room experiment. Sensory Noise Hypothesis Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness 2 Sensory Noise Hypothesis: Psi effects are suppressed by background sensory noise. Techniques to improve the signal-to-noise ratio: Altered states of consciousness (ASCs), such as: Ganzfeld stimulation. Psychedelics. Meditation. Telepathy: Ganzfeld Experiments Sensory Deprivation: Use of ping-pong balls. White noise. Sender and receiver setup. 30-minute sessions. Four response options (videos). ESP Cards Used to address problems with: Familiarity of the sender and receiver. General knowledge (guessing). Similarity (fixed number of response options). Use of random number generators. Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness 3 ❗to check out this slide in the literature: Bem's experiments: Feeling in the future: experimantal evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influrnces on cognition and Affect Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness 4 Psychokinesis Experimental findings: Individual differences Extraverts, openness to new experiences Sheep-goat effect (“believers” do better) ~ Gertrude Schmeidler Psi missing (significantly worse than chance) Experimenter effects Experimental research on ESP Meta-analyses of parapsychology studies show an overall effect of 5-10% above chance level However: experimenter and confirmation bias Interpretation of the message by sender and receiver Unconscious experimenter effect (Doyen et al., 2012) Leakage in experimental design Publication bias & file-drawer problem Degrees of freedom and flexibility in data-analysis Arguments against ESP James Randi’s 1 million dollar has never been claimed Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness 5 CIA Stargate project has been stopped If precognition would have an evolutionary advantage, we would expect this trait to be widespread Experimenter, confirmation, and publication bias Parapsychological studies are sensitive to subjective decisions in the data analysis and reporting The real lesson to be learned here Is this really showing precognition or evidence for ESP? “The real lesson to be learned from this is not that ESP exists; it’s that the methods we’re using aren’t protecting us against spurious results,” says David Krantz, a statistician at Columbia University. “It would […] be mistaken to interpret our assessment of the Bem experiments as an attack on research of unlikely phenomena; instead, our assessment suggests that something is deeply wrong with the way experimental psychologists design their studies and report their statistical results. It is a disturbing thought that many experimental findings, proudly and confidently reported in the literature as real, might in fact be based on statistical tests that are explorative and biased.” (Wagenmakers et al., 2011) Why do people believe in parapsychological phenomena? Feeling of control (Kay et al., 2010): Compensatory control theory Dissatisfaction with current medical-reductionist framework Meaning-making: finding sense and direction in life (Proulx et al., 2013) Placebo-effect & Positive effects on mental health Intuitive Dualism Dualism = intuitive People reason dualistically across many ages and cultures (Bering, 2002, 2006; Bering & Bjorklund, 2004; Bloom, 2007) Nature-nurture debate: ‘Intuitive dualists’ (e.g., Bering & Bjorklund, 2004; Bloom, 2007) Cultural learning (e.g., Harris & Giménez, 2005; Hodge, 2008) Intuitive dualistic thinking at the basis of: Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness 6 Religious beliefs Paranormal beliefs Astral travel Belief in alternative medicine Mind-body interventions Etc. Large-scale cross-cultural study (with 4 sub-projects) 24 religiously and culturally diverse countries (Nmin = 400) Data per country Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness 7 Why do people believe in parapsychological phenomena? Cognitive biases: Dualism Intuitive vs. Analytical Thinking Confirmation Bias Associative biases / Covariation biases Illusory Pattern detection Agency detection Theory of Mind / Intentionality Ontological Confusions Fantasy-proneness Lecture notes week 6 Consctiousness 8

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