Abstract

Conducted a cross-cultural study to investigate the effect of ESP on academic examination performance. In Series 1, 13 American college students in a parapsychological summer study program were asked to complete 4 multiple-choice tests based on material drawn from the parapsychological literature. Half the questions had real answers and half had made-up answers. Individual target orders for the made-up questions were sealed in opaque envelopes and attached to the test booklets. Ss recorded their answers in columns according to whether they were doubtful, certain, or guessing about the answer. It was predicted that Ss who scored above chance on real questions about which they were doubtful or guessing (expected psi-hitters) would obtain significantly more hits on the ESP questions than Ss who scored below chance (expected psi-missers) on real questions answered in the doubtful and guessing columns. Results support the prediction. A 2nd series was conducted with Indian psychology students, and results again support the prediction.