Do you think science is capable of answering questions about ESP

For this assignment go to  http://www.psychicscience.org/esp3.aspx  and test yourself for ESP.

Be sure you check the following boxes.

• Clairvoyance
• Open Deck
• Cards seen
• 50 Cards

Once you set the parameters, click start and start selecting the card from the five shape selections that you think is going to come up. Under normal circumstances the person holding the deck would “project” the design to you by thinking about it, therefore we are using clairvoyance, you should be able to tell what is going to come up by predicting the future. Once you have reached 50 (more is better for statistical power) the website will calculate the statistical relevance of your hits and tell you if you have enough hits to have evidence for ESP.

When finished, answer the questions listed below and submit your responses to the assignment submission box.

Questions

1. What was your hypothesis?
2. What were your results and were they significant?
3. Did you accept or reject your null hypothesis?
4. What conclusions (if any) did you draw from the results about whether or not your subject has ESP?
5. Do you think the results of your study are valid? Why or why not?
6. Is there anything you could do to prove the validity of these results?
7. Do you think science is capable of answering questions about ESP?
8. Do you think that modern scientists should continue to conduct research into the existence of psychic abilities? Why or why not?
9. Whether you believe in the existence of ESP or not, what evidence would you require to change your mind?
10. Did this exercise change your mind about psychic powers? Explain.

Alternative to the website

If you would rather, or if you can’t get the website to load on your computer, you can also do this with a standard deck of cards. Take out the 10, jack, queen, king, and ace of each suit.  Put the rest away and shuffle these 20 cards. Then, keeping them face down, predict which one is going to come up.  On a piece of paper make two columns, label one “right” and one “wrong”.  Record each time you are right and each time you are wrong. Repeat this 50 times.  When you are out of cards (every 20 predictions) reshuffle them and start again. Count the number of times you were “right”.  If you were right at least 16 times, then you had enough “hits” to be significantly above chance. Anything less and it shows that any ESP ability was below the detectable threshold for this experiment (note we don’t say that you “don’t” have ESP, we just don’t have any evidence for it).