Extra-Sensory Perception - Essay Example

My hypothesis is that ESP does not exist.

Procedures

Three subjects were tested using two different types of Zener card tests. These tests were online and can be found at www.scientificpsychic.com/esp/esptest.html and www.psychic-experiences.com/psychic-tests/zener-cards.php. Each was asked to perform the first test, of guessing the order of the cards, 10 times, and the second test, of guessing individual cards, 4 times. This gave a sample size of 200 chances per subject to guess or “sense” the correct Zener card. The subjects were informed in advance that the point of the experiment was to test their psychic powers or extra-sensory perceptive ability. After all three subjects completed the testing, their individual results were averaged and recorded, and the average across all three subjects was also calculated.

Results

Subject 1

Subject 2

Subject 3

Test 1 Average

16/100

21/100

17/100

Test 2 Average

6/25

6/25

7/25

The average for all three subjects in the first Zener card test was 18/100, or 18% correct. All three subjects were within +/- 3 of that average on every test run. The average in the second test was 6.3/25, or 25.3% correct. One subject did have a single test score of 10/25, or 40% correct, but without being able to repeat it, this event is not statistically significant.

Discussion and Conclusions

The random chance of selecting the correct card for each of these tests was 20%. Both of these tests, for all three subjects, showed no deviation on average from that probability of more than 5%.  In fact, only one individual test even showed more than a 5% deviation from this expected probability. Based on this data, we must fail to reject the hypothesis and find that, for the terms laid out in this experiment, ESP does not exist.

However, none of the subjects surveyed expressed any prior feelings of an ESP ability. It is possible that such an ability is limited to certain people, and so by not testing anyone who claims to have this ability, the results may not be complete. Further study may be warranted to widen the scope of these results. In addition, only one type of test, the Zener card test, was used in this experiment. ESP abilities cannot be fully ruled out until other types of testing are done as well, as perhaps they may manifest in another form.