Abstract

Internal patterns in the PRL autoganzfeld database may shed some light on the plausibility of the sound leakage hypothesis (R. Wiseman et al, 1994). According to the hypothesis, sound cues originating with the sender could have been perceived by the experimenter during an autoganzfeld session. The experimenter could have inferred the target from these cues and could subsequently have communicated this information to the "receiver" during the judging phase of the experiment. The sound leakage hypothesis would predict stronger effects for sessions where the S is not sure about his ratings, because in those sessions the experimenter may be able to influence him or her into another direction. A secondary analysis where the scoring in sessions with an extreme rating is compared with the scoring in sessions with a lower rating shows the opposite trend. Therefore it can be concluded that this pattern does not support the auditory sound leakage hypothesis.