Description
Bem (2011) published a suite of experiments showing precognition-like experiences under controlled laboratory conditions. Bem’s work is particularly interesting in suggesting that this material might be available unconsciously, influencing the choices that people make, allowing them to capitalise on opportunities and avoid dangers, but not giving rise to overt ‘psychic’ experiences.A meta-analysis of replication studies (Bem et al., 2016) classified experiment types using Kahneman’s (2011) dual-mode theory of cognition,: ‘fast’ and ‘slow’ thinking. System 1 involves fast, automatic, frequent, emotional, stereotypic, unconscious processes and utilises parallel processing, whereas System 2 is a slow, effortful, logical, calculating, conscious, and linear process. Bem et al. (2016) found that ‘feeling the future’ experiments involving slow processes (e.g. memory recall tasks) did not deviate significantly from chance expectation whereas those involving fast processes (e.g. priming tasks) were significantly higher with a much greater degree of consistency across studies, consistent with Carpenter’s (2012) First Sight Theory (FST).
FST represents a model of consciousness that incorporates psi phenomena as a fundamental feature of its modus operandi. It not only attempts to account for observations concerning conventional processes of memory and perception, but also the patterns of performance observed in research on ESP. It makes a series of explicit, testable hypotheses about who should perform well within the fast-thinking type of experiment and under what circumstances (Roe 2019a, 2019b).
The current project comprises a series of planned experiments that will test various predictions using one of Bem’s fast-thinking precognition tasks. The focus is on personality and individual difference variables that might moderate performance on the precognition task. Here we introduce the first experiment, with a preliminary analysis of our findings.
| Period | 5 Sept 2024 |
|---|---|
| Event title | 24th International Eurotas Conference: Creative Bridges |
| Event type | Conference |
| Location | Oxford, United KingdomShow on map |
| Degree of Recognition | International |