The sender as a PK agent in ESP studies: The effects of agent and target system lability upon performance at a novel PK task

Recent research to evaluate whether the sender plays any active role in ganzfeld GESP experiments has used a random number generator (RNG) as a “virtual receiver” to select descriptors from a pool of statements (e.g., Roe & Holt, 2005; Roe, Holt, & Simmonds, 2003). Here participants focused on the virtual receiver when attempting to “send” information concerning a randomly selected target clip. This obviated the need for a human receiver and allowed for immediate feedback of a 24-statement “virtual mentation” consisting of 8 statements selected by each of 3 methods differing in lability: random number table; pseudorandom process; and live RNG. We hypothesised that the greatest psi effect would be found with the most labile target system and with the most “stable” senders. Virtual mentations from 40 trials were rated by 2 independent blind judges for similarity to the target and 3 decoys. Significant main effects of target and sender lability were not obtained, but a predicted interaction between them was found, F (4,74) = 4.959, p = .001, as senders with high trait lability performed best with the least labile target system and vice versa. This result was interpreted in terms of Stanford’s (1978) conformance behaviour model.