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Plain English Summary
This paper tackled a big problem in remote viewing research (where people try to 'see' distant targets using only their minds): how do you score whether someone actually described a target correctly without relying on subjective human opinion? The team, including Jessica Utts who later became president of the American Statistical Association, borrowed a clever math tool called fuzzy sets — essentially a way to handle vagueness numerically — to automatically measure how accurate and reliable a viewer's descriptions were. They tested it on six remote-viewing trials, and impressively, the automated scores lined up well with what 37 independent human judges thought. The combined statistics were significant, with a notably strong correlation of 0.67. They also sorted 200 targets into 19 distinct visual groups, giving researchers a principled way to pick fair decoy images for future experiments.
Abstract
Fuzzy set technology is applied to the ongoing research question of how to automate the analysis of remote-viewing data. Fuzzy sets were invented to describe, in a formal way, the subjectivity inherent in human reasoning. Applied to remote-viewing analysis, the technique involves a quantitative encoding of target and response material and provides a formal comparison. In this progress report, the accuracy of a response is defined as the percent of the intended target material that is described correctly. The reliability is defined as the percent of the response that was correct. The assessment of the remote-viewing quality is defined as the product of accuracy and reliability, called the figure of merit. The procedure is applied to a test set of six remote-viewing trials. A comparison of the figures of merit with the subjective assessments of 37 independent analysts shows good agreement. The fuzzy set technology is also used to provide a quantitative definition of target orthogonality.
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Cites
- Information transmission under conditions of sensory shielding — Targ, Russell (1974)
- A Perceptual Channel for Information Transfer over Kilometer Distances: Historical Perspective and Recent Research — Puthoff, Harold E (1976)
- "Future Telling": A Meta-Analysis of Forced-Choice Precognition Experiments, 1935-1987 — Honorton, Charles (1989)
Companion
- Replication and Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology — Utts, Jessica (1991)
- Correlations of Random Binary Sequences with Pre-Stated Operator Intention: A Review of a 12-Year Program — Jahn, Robert G (1997)
- Apparent Association Between Effect Size in Free Response Anomalous Cognition Experiments and Local Sidereal Time — Spottiswoode, S. James P (1997)
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- Information and Uncertainty in Remote Perception Research — Dunne, Brenda J (2003)
- Follow-up on the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency's (CIA) Remote Viewing Experiments — Escolà-Gascón, Álex (2023)
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📋 Cite this paper
May, Edwin C, Utts, Jessica M, Humphrey, Beverly S, Luke, Wanda L. W, Frivold, Thane J, Trask, Virginia V (1990). Advances in Remote-Viewing Analysis. Journal of Parapsychology.
@article{may_1990_advances,
title = {Advances in Remote-Viewing Analysis},
author = {May, Edwin C and Utts, Jessica M and Humphrey, Beverly S and Luke, Wanda L. W and Frivold, Thane J and Trask, Virginia V},
year = {1990},
journal = {Journal of Parapsychology},
}