Commentary: intentional observer effects on quantum randomness: a bayesian analysis reveals evidence against micro-psychokinesis

Grote, Hartmut ORCID: https://orcid.org/0000-0002-0797-3943 2018. Commentary: intentional observer effects on quantum randomness: a bayesian analysis reveals evidence against micro-psychokinesis. Frontiers in Psychology 9 , 1350. 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.01350

Preview

PDF - Published Version Available under License Creative Commons Attribution. Download (275kB) | Preview

Abstract

In the article [Maier2018] the authors report on a mind-matter experiment comprising an impressive 12.571 subjects in a Micro-Psychokinesis (Micro-PK) task. The main result of that study, testing the aggregate sum of the data against its expectation value, is reported as strong evidence against Micro-PK. Despite this conclusion, the authors move ahead and interpret a post-hoc observed pattern in their data as possible evidence for Micro-PK, albeit of a different kind. The authors put forward the hypothesis that a higher frequency of slow data variations can be observed in their experiment data than in a single set of control data. They propose that Micro-PK-Effects show up not in the aggregate sum, but in fluctuations (i.e. in the time sequence) of their data: “Interestingly, there seems to be a pattern of repeated change.” The authors connect this possible observation with theories of von Lucadou and others (e.g.[Luc2006,Luc2007,Luc2015]), extended by their own thoughts about possible decline effects in Parapsychology experiments. As a smaller remark, it seems to this author that there is a confusion here about decline of the primary effect size and a decline as observed in a cumulative z-score representation of data, as used by the authors. A constant oscillation of an original effect size always leads to a decline of oscillations in a cumulative z-score plot, as more data goes into the z-score calculation. Likewise, this confusion is also evident in Figure 7 of [Maier2018]. The cumulative z-scores in those figures have a constant oscillation amplitude, which is only possible with an oscillating and exponentially growing effect size in the original data.

Item Type:	Article
Date Type:	Publication
Status:	Published
Schools:	Physics and Astronomy
Subjects:	Q Science > QB Astronomy Q Science > QC Physics
Publisher:	Frontiers
ISSN:	1664-1078
Date of First Compliant Deposit:	25 July 2018
Date of Acceptance:	13 January 2018
Last Modified:	14 Nov 2024 06:45
URI:	https://orca.cardiff.ac.uk/id/eprint/113448

Actions (repository staff only)

Edit Item