APPLICATIONS OF COGNITIVE MAPS AND EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION

 COGNITIVE MAPS AND SHAPE

 Our cognitive maps represent not only distances, but also shapes. These shapes are evident in
map features such as the angles formed by intersecting streets and the curves illustrating the
bends in rivers
 Consider the classic research by Moar and Bower (1983), who studied people’s cognitive
maps of Cambridge, England
 All the participants in the study had lived in Cambridge for at least five years. Moar and
Bower wanted to determine people’s estimates for the angles formed by the intersection of
two streets.
 The participants showed a clear tendency to “regularize” the angles so that they were more
like 90-degree angles. For example, three intersections in Cambridge had “real” angles of 67,
63, and 50 degrees. However, people estimated these same angles to be 84, 78, and 88 degrees
 In fact, this study showed that seven of the nine angles were significantly biased in the
direction of a 90 degree angle
 A heuristic is a general problem- solving strategy that usually produces a correct solution.
When two roads meet in most urban areas, they generally form a 90-degree angle. When
people use the 90 degree-angle heuristic, they represent angles in a mental map as being closer
to 90 degrees than they really are.
 Research confirms that people tend to use symmetry heuristic; we remember figures as being
more symmetrical and regular than they truly are (Montello et al., 2004; Tversky, 2000a;
Tversky & Schiano, 1989). Again, these results follow the gen- eral pattern: The small
inconsistencies of geographic reality are smoothed over, creat- ing cognitive maps that are
idealized and standardized.
 COGNITIVE MAPS AND RELATIVE POSITIONS
 Barbara Tversky (1981, 1998) points out that we use heuristics when we represent relative
positions in our mental maps—just as we use heuristics to represent the angles of intersecting
streets as being close to 90 degree angles, and just as we represent curves as being
symmetrical.
 In particular, Tversky argues: (1) We remember a tilted geo- graphic structure as being either
more vertical or more horizontal than it really is (the rotation heuristic); and (2) We remember
geographic structures as being arranged in a straighter line than they really are (the alignment
heuristic).
 THE ROTATION HEURISITC
 According to the rotation heuristic, a figure that is slightly tilted will be remembered as being
either more vertical or more horizontal than it really is (Taylor, 2005; Tversky, 1981, 1997,
2000b; Wagner, 2006)
 When we use the rotation heuristic for our cognitive map we make the orientation more
vertical by rotating
 Tversky (1981) studied people’s mental maps for the geographic region of the San Francisco
Bay Area. She found that 69% of the students at a Bay Area university showed evidence of
the rotation heuristic
 When constructing their mental maps, they rotated the California coastline in a more north-
south direction than is true on a geographically correct map. Keep in mind, though, that some
students—in fact, 31% of them—were not influenced by this heuristic.
 We also have cross-cultural evidence for the rotation heuristic. People living in Israel, Japan,
and Italy also tend to rotate geographic structures
 THE ALIGNMENT HEURISTIC
 According to the alignment heuristic, a series of geographic structures will be remembered as
being more lined up than they really are (Taylor, 2005; Tversky, 1981, 2000b).
 To test the alignment heuristic, Tversky (1981) presented pairs of cities to students, who were
asked to select which member of each pair was north (or, in some cases, east).
 Rome is actually north of Philadelphia. However, because of the alignment heuristic, people
tend to line up the United States and Europe so that they are in the same latitude
 We know that Rome is in the southern part of Europe and that Philadelphia is in the northern
part of the United States. Therefore, we conclude— incorrectly—that Philadelphia is north of
Rome.
 Tversky’s results indicated that many students showed a consistent tendency to use the
alignment heuristic. For example, 78% judged Philadelphia to be north of Rome, and 12%
judged that they were at the same latitude. Only 10% correctly answered that Rome is north of
Philadelphia
 On all eight pairs of items tested by Tversky, an aver- age of 66% of participants supplied the
incorrect answer. According to additional research, people’s cognitive maps are most likely to
be biased when northern cities in North America are compared with southern cities in Europe
(Friedman et al., 2002)
 The rotation heuristic and the alignment heuristic may initially sound similar
 The rotation heuristic requires rotating a single coastline, country, building, or other figures in
a clockwise or counterclockwise fashion so that its border is oriented in a nearly vertical or
horizontal direction. In contrast, the alignment heuristic requires lining up several separate
countries, buildings, or other figures in a straight row.
 However, when our mental maps rely too strongly on these heuristics, we miss the important
details that make each stimulus unique. When our top-down cognitive processes are too
active, we fail to pay sufficient attention to bottom-up information
 In everyday life, we often hear or read descriptions of a particular environment. For instance,
a friend calls to give you directions to her house. You have never traveled there before, yet
you create a cognitive map as you hear her describing the route
 These cognitive maps help us represent the spatial aspects of our external environment.
 When we hear a description, we do not simply store these isolated statements in a passive
fashion.
 We actively create a cognitive map that represents the relevant features of a scene (Tversky,
2005a, 2005b). In fact, the mental maps that people create from a description are similar to the
mental maps they create from looking at a scene (Bryant, 1998; Carr & Roskos-Ewoldsen,
1999; Tversky, 2000b, 2005a, 2005b)
 Franklin and Tversky presented verbal descriptions of ten different scenes, such as a hotel
lobby, an opera theater, a barn, and so forth. Each description mentioned five objects located
in a plausible position in relation to the observer (either above, below, in front, in back, or to
either the left or the right side)
 Perhaps people can construct cognitive maps from verbal descriptions when the text suggests
that the reader is observing a scene.
 Do you jump into the scene and adopt Detective Brown’s perspective? Bryant, Tversky, and
Franklin (1992) found that readers typically prefer to adopt the perspective of the observer.
They were less likely to remain outside the scene, like a viewer watching a movie.
 We have seen that the cognitive maps we derive from verbal descriptions represent both
 orientation and point of view.
 Then we use those landmarks as reference points for adding other locations to our cognitive
maps.
 Our cognitive maps also represent distance, even if distance is not explicitly mentioned. For
example, when people read that Joe has been walking for a long time, they make an inference
about distance. Consequently, their cognitive maps show a great distance between Joe’s
starting point and his final destination (Rapp & Taylor, 2004; Rinck, 2005).

EXTRA SENSORY PERCEPTION

 Extrasensory perception or ESP, also called sixth sense, includes claimed reception of

information not gained through the recognized physical senses, but sensed with the mind. The
term was adopted by Duke University psychologist J.B.Rhine to denote psychic abilities such
as intuition, telepathy, psychometry, clairvoyance, and their trans-temporal operation
as precognition or retrocognition
 Second sight is a form of extrasensory perception, the power to perceive things that are not
present to the 5 senses, whereby a person perceives information, in the form of a vision, about
future events before they happen (precognition), or about things or events at remote locations
(remote viewing There is no scientific evidence that second sight exists. Reports of second
sight are known only from anecdotal evidence given after the fact.
 In the 1930s, at Duke University in North Carolina, J. B. Rhine and his wife Louisa E.
Rhine conducted investigation into extrasensory perception. While Louisa Rhine concentrated
on collecting accounts of spontaneous cases, J. B. Rhine worked largely in the laboratory,
carefully defining terms such as ESP and psi and designing experiments to test them. A simple
set of cards was developed, originally called Zener cards– now called ESP cards. 
 They bear the symbols circle, square, wavy lines, cross, and star. There are five of each type
of card in a pack of 25.
 In a telepathy experiment, the "sender" looks at a series of cards while the "receiver" guesses
the symbols. To try to observe clairvoyance, the pack of cards is hidden from everyone while
the receiver guesses
 To try to observe precognition, the order of the cards is determined after the guesses are made.
Later he used dice to test for psychokinesis
 The parapsychology experiments at Duke evoked criticism from academics and others who
challenged the concepts and evidence of ESP. A number of psychological departments
attempted to repeat Rhine's experiments with failure. W. S. Cox (1936) from Princeton
University with 132 subjects produced 25,064 trials in a playing card ESP experiment. Cox
concluded
 "There is no evidence of extrasensory perception either in the 'average man' or of the group
investigated or in any particular individual of that group. The discrepancy between these
results and those obtained by Rhine is due either to uncontrollable factors in experimental
procedure or to the difference in the subjects."
 Four other psychological departments failed to replicate Rhine's results
 In 1938, the psychologist Joseph Jastrow wrote that much of the evidence for extrasensory
perception collected by Rhine and other parapsychologists was anecdotal, biased, dubious and
the result of "faulty observation and familiar human frailties". Rhine's experiments were
discredited due to the discovery that sensory leakage or cheating could account for all his
results such as the subject being able to read the symbols from the back of the cards and being
able to see and hear the experimenter to note subtle clues.
 In the 1960s parapsychologists became increasingly interested in the cognitive components of
ESP, the subjective experience involved in making ESP responses, and the role of ESP in
psychological life. This called for experimental procedures that were not limited to Rhine's
favored forced-choice methodology. Such procedures have included dream
telepathy experiments, and the ganzfeld experiments (a mild sensory deprivation procedure).
 Second sight may have originally been so called because normal vision was regarded as
coming first, while supernormal vision is a secondary thing, confined to certain individuals.An
dà shealladh or "the two sights", meaning "the sight of the seer", is the way Gaels refer to
 "second sight", the involuntary ability of seeing the future or distant events. There are many
Gaelic words for the various aspects of second sight, but an dà shealladh is the one mostly
recognized by non-Gaelic speakers, even though, strictly speaking, it does not really mean
second sight, but rather "two sights"
 Extrasensory perception (ESP) refers to the ability to obtain information about the world
around you without using the normal five senses of sight, touch, taste, hearing, and smell. The
basic assumption behind extrasensory perception is that humans can experience things that go
beyond the capabilities of the known senses
 Joseph Banks Rhine popularized the term extrasensory perception in 1934. Rhine, a professor
at Duke University at the time, conducted several experiments that he believed proved the
existence of extrasensory perception, though many scientists have challenged his findings and
methods. Not all people believe that extrasensory perception exists.
 There are many theories as to what causes extrasensory perception. Some individuals believe
that all humans have some degree of extrasensory perception and that we involuntarily
experience extrasensory perception on several occasions
 Others believe that a select few individuals have special powers that allow them to access
extrasensory perception, but only when they are in a special mental state. Most individuals
who believe in extrasensory perception maintain that all humans have the potential for extra
sensory perception but some of us are more aware than others.
 Extra-sensory perception (ESP) is a term often scoffed at in psychology and wider science: an
alleged ‘paranormal’ or supernatural phenomenon that many believe is best suited to science
fiction films. Yet, to the surprise of many academics, a significant body of scientific evidence
exists which may suggest otherwise.
 ESP has been defined as ‘anomalous processes of information or energy transfer, processes
such as telepathy… that are currently unexplained in terms of known physical or biological
mechanisms’ (Bem & Honorton, 1994, p.4)
 Although unexplained by current scientific thought, surveys continually indicate that belief in
ESP is extremely common (Moore, 2005) and many individuals are adamant that they have
experienced ESP at first hand (Greeley, 1987).
 Additionally, psychologists and sociologists have collected thousands of retrospective case
reports of alleged ESP phenomena (Irwin & Watt, 2007)
 However, our knowledge of the human mind raises considerable doubts over the accuracy of
such anecdotal evidence. Extensive research has shown us that memory can be unreliable, and
that cognitive biases result in events regularly and easily being misinterpreted (Henkel &
Mather, 2007; Kahneman et al., 1993). 
 Furthermore, the laws of probability mean that weird coincidences that may well appear ‘ESP-
like’ can’t help but happen. For example, thinking of a friend you have not spoken to for
sometime and then receiving a telephone call from that very person may be seem too much of
a coincidence, best explained by some form of ESP.
 Alternatively it may just be pure coincidence; how many times is a distant friend thought of
and they don’t call? If we also consider fraud and mistakenness, anecdotes are reduced to
something only vaguely resembling scientific evidence.
 Yet the assumption that belief in ESP is related to lower IQ and poorer reasoning skills has
been shown to be inaccurate (Roe, 1999).
 Indeed, education level has even been shown to be positively correlated with belief in ESP
(Rice, 2003). Those that believe in the possibility of ESP are also in good company; William
James, Carl Jung and Nobel Prize winner Charles Riche to name but a few great minds.
 Parapsychology scientifically investigates the possibility of ESP, and has collected a large
body of evidence which some suggest support such a remarkable claim (Bem & Honorton,
1994; Sherwood & Roe, 2003). The most common experimental design that has been used to
examine the ‘ESP hypothesis’ is the ganzfeld procedure.
 THE GANZFELD PROCEDURE
 A typical ganzfeld experiment involves two participants. Participant 1, known as ‘the
receiver’ is seated in a comfortable chair in an acoustically isolated room. Translucent Ping-
Pong ball halves are taped over their eyes, and a red floodlight shone over them while white
noise is played through headphones
  These measures are taken to reduce external noise and place participants in a comfortable
‘dreamy state of awareness’
  The reasoning behind such procedures is that anecdotal reports of ESP often occur during
altered states of consciousness. Participant 2, otherwise known as ‘the sender’, is located in a
different room. A computer randomly selects a stimulus or ‘target’ (typically a photograph or
video) from a large pool. It is the sender’s job to concentrate on the target and attempt to
mentally send it to the receiver
 During this time the receiver provides a continuous verbal report of any imagery or thoughts.
After the session the receiver is presented with four stimuli (one is the target and the other
three serve as decoys) and asked to select which of the four was most similar to their
mentation.
 Early ganzfeld experiments produced highly significant results, well above what chance
would predict for performance. Meta-analyses by parapsychologist Charles Honorton and
sceptic Ray Hyman, examining 28 studies taking place between 1974 and 1981, reported a hit
rate of 35 per cent (Honorton, 1985).
 Although the 10 per cent deviation may seem small, over so many trials this is a robust
finding that is extremely unlikely to be explained by chance deviation
 Furthermore, the effect was replicated by numerous researchers (Honorton, 1985). However,
concern was raised over a number of possible methodological flaws surrounding the
experiments, including cues through sensory leakage and poor randomisation of target stimuli
(Hyman, 1985)
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