Abstract

Tested findings in a prior series of plethysmographic extrasensory perception (ESP) experiments by the 2nd author involving emotional targets (names of persons) in which the S first acting as the percipient of a pair of Ss in a session obtained lower ESP scores than the other S, who acted as a 2nd percipient after having had the role of an agent for the 1st percipient. In the present study, 8 experimenters (college students) recruited 80 other students to serve as agents and percipients. A formalized checking procedure was used as part of the experimental design. Each author checked data collected by the other. The occurrence of the percipient-order effect, the effect of an appetizing conscious ESP task, and the combined effect of different experimenters and checkers on the ESP scores were tested systematically. None of the hypotheses was confirmed but one component of the overall experimenter effect, the effect of the checkers, was significant. (10 ref)