This abstract is opened in a separate window. Your initial window may be hidden behind this one |
Dick J. Bierman
Journal of Scientific Exploration, 10 - 3 (1996), pp. 363-374.
During the period from May 11, 1995 to May 21, 1995 disturbing events, like apparent anomalous movements of objects were reported at the home of a family in Druten (The Netherlands) . A few days after the phenomena started, a hardware random number generator connected to a computer was installed on the premises. As measures for the non-randomness of the RNG, two coherence variables, one representing first order non randomness and one representing 8-bit patterned forms of non randomness, were used.
Comparison of epochs during which disturbances occurred and control epochs showed a decrease in first order RNG coherence (sum of z2 scores was: 78.4 with df=107; p < 0.05 two tailed; in the control periods sum of z2 was 4724 with df= 4771, n.s.) while the more general RNG coherence measure did not show an effect - On Wednesday May 24, 1995, when the field RNG was still running at the home, the major European sports event, the European soccer cup final, was played between a Dutch and an Italian team. During the 90 minutes of the match, the RNG showed a significant increase in first order non-randomness (sum of z2 scores = 343.6 , df=297, p < 0.05 one tailed) while during the preceding control period the RNG showed its normal behavior (sum of z2 scores = 284, df=297,n.s.). The global coherence measure testing all possible 8 bit patterns decreased non significantly during the match.
- Two minutes before the end of the match, the only goal was scored by the Dutch team. Comparison of the 10 minutes before the goal and the 4 minutes after the goal suggests that after the goal the RNG shows a decrease in global coherence (mean chi2 before = 258.4, mean chi2 after = 245.2, t = -1.94, df = 54, p<0.058 two tailed) but no first order coherence effects were observed. - The results are discussed in the light of similar recent experiments, with special emphasis on the weak conceptual framework and the weak methodological aspects, especially the risk of over-analyses is inherent in this type of field work at this stage.