THE POSSIBLE EFFECT OF THE CHECKER IN PRECOGNITION TESTS

J.of Parapsychology, 32-3, p.167-175

Two pilot experiments were conducted by one of the authors to investigate (1) whether the person who checks a precognition test may affect the scores of the subject; and if so (2) whether this may be due to subject's conscious expectation or to some unconscious precognition on his part of who will check this test. Strongly suggestive results (p<0.03) in the data checked by the experimenter herself indicated that the subjects scored positiviely on the runs they thought she would check and negatively on those runs they thought an unidentified assistent would check. An experiment by the second author with a similar group of subjects confirmed this effect (p < 0.01) in the data checked by the experimenter himself. In both pilot and confirmation studies, the effect was strongly localized (p < 0.001) on the first of the four runs in the session.

In both the pilot and confirmation experiments, the above difference related to the subject's expectations was found only in the data checked by the main experimenter and not in the data checked by the assistant. Finding this differential effect for one checker and not for the other suggests that it is not only who the subject thinks will be checking his data, but who actually does check his data that affects scoring in a precognition test.