PURLACATION POLICY serch TSB Se th ey hy eRe pa in one of the regular journals, e a need in activities because they do not meet the standards required b professional journals. tn addition, the Research Letters ate we fo 208 consider oueselves cesponstble for publica ions in ue . The Research Letter ts sent free to subscribers to the Euey Jostanl of Parapsychology and co penbers of che Parapeyenological {TUE EFFECT OF VARIATIONS IN TARGET MATERIAL (oN FSP AND MEMORY S.Js Blacknore If we are to integrate ESP into psychology and to learn gore abowt ter qllationship tovother processes one of the First questions <0 ask AE RIEL ESr esenbies cogeitive processes such as senory and se eeet tone Thave discussed five aechods used for investigating, this BRR sce Le Te study of errors aade In ES? (Blacknore, 1981), 2+ TEUElond qeeween ES? and memory or other cogattive skills Gelackavte, 19802), 3. Studies of the effects of varying target CRISES SA Ege, 42 The use of the recall situation eo a psi-conducive meee dnd Sa ihe acudy of associative habits and their effect on ESP [eeckabro, 19800)¢ Pils. paper ds conearned only with the third of (reateesebaches, that is studies of the effects of varying totset acertal on ESP pertornance. when considering other cognitive processesy the nature of the weet tbed atteces the eutcome. The attributes of stinulus material mrerttt Senory under different test conditions have been studied én ses acest Goee ergs eerior, 1974; Brom, 1976). Sone words of Stetures ate easter co fecall than others, others easier co reconnise. Bhevaane can be seid of perception. Under inperfect conditions Mee Ett aitertat is easter to perceive or 0 Ldentifys The threshold $e Mariag one's oon nane {1 lover than for other nanes, the qvalicy, ‘Shetty and faniltertey of a stimlus affects the ease vith which i fe gercelved in a brief exposure. Again the stinolus variables Livéived have boen thoroughly atudied (seo Baber and Hershenson, [g73). Ie B52 favolves the sane processes as either menory or perception then we chould spect variations in certain stimulusRESEARCH attributes co affect the level of scoring. The attribute ray not be the sane a for more familiar test para be reasonable co start by digas but ie would esting these before’ proceeding to nes ones: There is 9 certain anount of evidence relating to stimsiue {RpfEDeLNS and ESP. to general, early studies, such as those by thine (19979, shoved Lette effect of varying obvious tatnee meibhes nae Ag SUES or distance (see exp. Rhine and Prate, 193i, Anes, 1999). NecFartand end George (1937) and Murphy (1938) found no reduction in scoring when symbols were distorted and Rhine (1934) noted the simple pote that the angle of presentation of the deck of cards ie aoe Important as one aight expect on a “radiation” theory. Van buscchbach (1956) found eat colours vere more ctfective targets than eieen azithactic symbols or words, but le failed to control fortes ceter of the different corgecs ant 1p « later study (1961) found no effeees ton 45 Castle (1953) Found that colours and #SP carde made bette tatgers than numbers, letters of dravings, but he used only ove senhees wea uindee poorly ‘controlled conditions. The reason for the aeteet effectiveness of ESP cards has been attelbuted to thelr inte Eeeedon from the effects of guessing habites Anconclusive at best, but if anyehlog tndlests the stimulus attributes testes, ALL this evidence appears 105 0 effect of varying Apart fron these considerations Little systensttc study of stinulus yorlgbles has been carried out, other than tneldentally. Pesheee okie 12 because they are generally thought to be unimportant: attaral a is 998 the practice {n parapsychology for authors ts report teeny detatt the nature of the stimulus. For example, when ESP sysbele re used chey may be bold black figures printed on white cards, seeil symbols Typed In lists, oF faint symbols fron a computer's’ ropertotees They nay be on fadividual cards, or on ilste flat oy Iolded eet detafls are rarely thoughe to werant incluston in the enserioneal Trese particular vartables aay {ndeed be unimportanc, but tf ESP reseables other cognitive se Processes, sone atteibutes of the stimalue Quahe to affect it and the various theories of ESP may give chee nte {hose attributes. Nor all theories, though, make such peesictionte Sones such s6 the observational theories of staaforde costes node! (Stanford, 1978), do not make specific predictions aber eke type of target aterial sost effective ant they may be compibe with imeny Findings. 1 shall" consider here aaly those theories chi wee ESP fo other counteive processes and so have inplications fae ie SP AND NEHORY 2 effects of different types of target Firstly, any perceptusl modet of HSP would predict that the perceptual characteristice of the stimuios ought to be faportant. For Sxample, we night expect tse, clarity oF relative position to have sone effect. These are precissly the wind of variables which have already teen shown to be irrelevant to E80, However, this face does ‘ot necessarily contradict a percepteal model. for 1f some new Detceptoal systen vere tnvolved we night mot be suare ef the relevant ‘atiables. This may be considered an unlikely poselbiLicy but should perhaps not be ruled out (axe Blackmore, 1980)" A nore general Approach is to vary the amount of Inforaation or redundancy in the Stlmalus macerial. if the process feseables petceprion thes a seloulus With more Infornaéion or nore reduniancy should be aore effectives In studies of perception the subject's expectancies interact with the type of mterial. for example, 4 subject primed with nore information about 4 stimulus, such ax its position, whether it vill be in upper or lover case letters etc, vill be able co identify that stimulus more quickly and accurately vhen it occurs (see flaber, 1966; Neisser, 1967). Siailarly false information aay slow down responses: IL ESP fesenbles perception ve should expect eimilar effects of set oF expectancy oa scofing levels. 1 know of to patapsychological experiments which have systematically varied eb este’ expectancies or set for target type. These two possibilities were investigated in experizencs in which the anount’ of information in the tatget was varied and the subjects’ expectations changed (experinenta | ané 2). Various nenory aodels of #5? also predict effects of dttterent target mterlaly Those 1 have called paranormal storage models, of the type proposed by Caringéon (1943) o¢ Price (1999), suggest chat the Lnfortation obtained 4s ESP is stored in the sane’say ss newocles aod depends pon processing priot to that svorages for examples second Picked up ty ESP. This Leads to the prediceion that better processing Sy an agent, perhaps producing sleaser or sore well defined ieasy would imke for more effective ESP. In addition Catington stressed the laporcince of ansctattont. a theory predicts cha one parton access to che first should be able to receieve the seconde faounitg # lose enough relationship between ‘ideas’ and stimll or targetes we fan predict that Lf ah agent leatns psits of words, for exanple,’chen subjects presented with one of the puir shold be aoe Likel}.choose the correct pair word than Sf tho agent serely looked at the paires Ja Carington's terme the first word wold act asa 'K-obJect's hn effect of agent learning 18 only ayuctfically predicted by Cartagton's and Price's theotles, bat LE s compacible both with Hell's pai-tielé theory (A01L, 1966) and his "enory theoty of ESP" (Rol1, 1966), in fact Koll (1966) discusses the poseible ieportance of the agent in" ESP. Such an experinent cannot therefore discrininate between these theories. Yonetheless, if en effect were found tt would be evidence for a nenoty theory rather than the perceatusl sedel and {le should be posetie co proceed to nore specific tests of the parttculac theories, two taperinente of this kind ate Feported here Another approach is to ask directly whether the same stimilus variables affect 2S? and menory in the sane way. Since a great deal ts known about stinclus Vartables affecting nenory performance (see e-Be Baddeley, 1976; Brovn, 1976) this should provide fertile ground for experimental comparisons. One could wary #SP targets along relevant, dimensions and deteraine the effect on perfornance. However, Cw probleas mediately arise to complicate the tssue. The First is that fhe effect of stimulus variables on nenory performance Ae specific to the type of memory tack, The second ie that some of the effect of Seinulue variables aight be on the learning stage of the task, and this is obviously missing in the case of FSP. Lee us constaer these in turn and see whether predictions for ESP can still be derived, The nature of the cask For different types of memory task different stimulus variables: affect petformince. For example iq fres recall and item eecogateion, performnce is better with pletures than sith eonerete words, and. Gorse with abstract words (Paivio, 1976). It appears that concreteness Sffeces these tasks in cinilar says and it has been argued that fmaginal coding, which Ls nore Likely for concrete items, occurs alongside verbal coding of words. A étfferent effect is found vith Sequential aenory tasks, that ia ones requiring memory for the order Of unrelated ttens. llere inagab{liey of concreteness of {tens does not Sppear to affect performance (Paivio, 1971). Conparing the effects of Frequency (in the language) of stimulus ESP AND HENDRY fadox ariges- Toat ts, for free recall words the so-called frequency par asaks Lit Seedeuotde ero cecetied beceer chan u Se sere mae lvccne 1s the case for recognition (Cregg, 1926)- Ov a Cetrleve-recogaise model of memory this is accounted for if the seers eeettse generates move common words but the recogat seers et ccEect ive for unconson ones, especiatty Af #8 mroeet clon sttefbures Include cecency and fanttlarity> Considering just these tuo veriables there 1s already a problen. Do we eaapare EGP with any one type of memory task? If so which one? 1 Souta'Suggeet chat éitéerene types of FSP cask ace comparable (2 Uiteerent aceoey tasks. Host interesting co ao¢e, ts that sn the wea Gr testy che Eequirencnt. ig to generate @ small nunber of teens, nich are thenselver snltkely to be forgotten, 40 the sighe order, which sore post closely conparable to the sequential nenory task which fo, unllie recsll snd recogation, unaffected by stimulus AStetetensst, and is a task earely used {n aewory studies. wore fantliar casks ace variants of fee recall, cved eeealL (such ee ener Ste Miearning) and recognition. Analogues of these can e atres ae dor tae, free response PSP tasks can be Likened co Free PeeEt#eGhe cask used by Rao, Morrison and Davie (1977) aod thae re Pitota tot the agent’ Learning expertnents, provide analogues PRESSE tees iSte'tearsing. A for recogtttion, Tcan ehiak of 10 cee Eep task comparable, Gut 1 vould sugaesc one in which subjects commen ESE ea ienes Large nunber ef itens and were asked co choose Rute’eney thought vere targete- Interestingly, 1€ we postulate a TMOTTASEED betugen E88 and neooty, then Ehis Cask might argombly be ETTESELCE than the conveneional tanto on the grounde that recogni stor Feanon eaperinents ustog this type of task were carried out heres returning co the effects of stimulus variables, we alghe expect to cand that fechwetcy aod. inagabiliey affect ESP in Gifterent eye setbedtng to th tasty Since the sequeneial. learning case te least see ee eescton type eath and to vary teequene) and IMigsDiTEEY of Sttgee' words (owe experinent 3+