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Plain English Summary
Can someone help you pass a test just by thinking really hard about the answers from far away? That's what researchers at the University of Padova tried to find out. In the first experiment, 40 people tried to pick real Chinese symbols from fakes β sometimes with a distant helper mentally 'sending' the right answers, sometimes alone. With the helper, scores jumped about 10% above what you'd expect from pure guessing, a modest but statistically real bump backed up by Bayesian analysis (a method that measures how strongly evidence supports a claim). A second experiment with 70 people using a simpler sun-or-moon task found a similar 9% boost. Intriguingly, these effects are comparable in size to classic telepathy-style ganzfeld experiments, but here nobody needed to sit in a dark room with ping-pong balls on their eyes β participants were just doing ordinary tasks.
Actual Paper Abstract
Aim of this study is to provide a demonstration of the non-local property of the human mind to connect at distance, that is, without the classical means of communication. In the first experiment, 40 participants were requested to identify in two separate sessions, 10 real and 10 false Chinese ideograms presented randomly, trying to connect mentally with the research assistant sending correct suggestions at distance that is without any possibility to communicate with them by conventional means. As control condition, in one of these two sessions the helper did not send any suggestion although the receiver believed the contrary. In the session without suggestion, the hits' mean score was 10.55; conversely, in the condition where a research assistant tried to suggest the correct identification at distance, the hits' mean score was 11.33. Both a frequentist and a Bayesian statistical analysis approach, allows to reject the Null Hypothesis supporting the alternative one, that is, the possibility of mental connection at distance exploiting the non-local properties of the human mind. A second experiment aimed at increasing the efficiency of this mental connection taking into account task complexity and the level of Absorption of participants as a personality trait deemed favorable to non-local communication. However the results were similar to the first experiment. Although mental connection at distance seems feasible, variables which positively moderate this kind of communication are still to be identified.
Research Notes
Part of Tressoldi's program at University of Padova testing non-local properties of human mind. Uses both frequentist and Bayesian statistical approaches. CRITICAL FIX (Session 50): catalog originally had wrong authors (Pederzoli, Caini, Ferrini, Melloni, Richeldi, Duma β from a different Tressoldi paper), wrong year (2014β2011), and wrong ID keyword (eeg_correlations β paper is behavioral, not EEG).
Two experiments at University of Padova testing non-local mental connection. Experiment 1 (N=40): participants identified real vs false Chinese ideograms in two sessions β one with a distant helper mentally suggesting correct answers, one without (single-blind, counterbalanced). Suggestion condition: M=11.33 (SD=1.62) vs no-suggestion M=10.55 (SD=1.84, MCE=10); paired t=2.25, ES=0.44, BF10=2.6; suggestion binomial z=3.7, BF10=23.8. Net increase 10.3% above MCE. Experiment 2 (N=70): simpler sun/moon task; M=5.44 vs MCE=5.0, t=2.27, ES=0.27, BF10=2.8; net increase 8.8%. Absorption (Tellegen) did not moderate the effect. Results comparable to ganzfeld effect sizes but without altered sensory states.
Links
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Cites
- Meta-Analysis of Free-Response Studies, 1992β2008: Assessing the Noise Reduction Model in Parapsychology β Storm, Lance (2010)
- Distant intentionality and the feeling of being stared at: Two meta-analyses β Schmidt, Stefan (2004)
- Feeling the Future: Experimental Evidence for Anomalous Retroactive Influences on Cognition and Affect β Bem, Daryl J (2011)
- Correlations between brain electrical activities of two spatially separated human subjects β Wackermann, JiΕΓ (2003)
- Videotaped Experiments on Telephone Telepathy β Sheldrake, Rupert (2003)
Same Research Program
- Extraordinary Claims Require Extraordinary Evidence: The Case of Non-Local Perception, a Classical and Bayesian Review of Evidences β Tressoldi, Patrizio E (2011)
- EEG Correlates of Social Interaction at Distance β Giroldini, William (2016)
- Brain-to-Brain (Mind-to-Mind) Interaction at Distance: A Confirmatory Study β Tressoldi, Patrizio E (2014)
Also by these authors
Meta-Analysis of Free-Response Studies 2009-2018: Assessing the Noise-Reduction Model Ten Years On
On the Correspondence Between Dream Content and Target Material Under Laboratory Conditions: A Meta-Analysis of Dream-ESP Studies, 1966-2016
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Telecommunication Telepathy: A Meta-Analysis
Rethinking Communication and Consciousness: Lessons from The Telepathy Tapes Podcast
Taking the Mindfield Literally: Discovering Minds by Assuming Competence Among Nonspeakers
Who's Calling? Evaluating the Accuracy of Guessing Who Is on the Phone
A Comparison of Four New Automated Telephone Telepathy Tests
π Cite this paper
Tressoldi, Patrizio E, Massaccesi, Stefano, Martinelli, Massimiliano, Cappato, Sara (2011). Mental Connection at Distance: Useful for Solving Difficult Tasks?. Psychology (SCIRP). https://doi.org/10.4236/psych.2011.28130
@article{tressoldi_2011_mental_connection,
title = {Mental Connection at Distance: Useful for Solving Difficult Tasks?},
author = {Tressoldi, Patrizio E and Massaccesi, Stefano and Martinelli, Massimiliano and Cappato, Sara},
year = {2011},
journal = {Psychology (SCIRP)},
doi = {10.4236/psych.2011.28130},
}