p.9
Prosopagnosia: Face Blindness
How common is prosopagnosia?
It may partially afflict as many as 2 percent of people.
p.16
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What was the relationship between the effect size and adherence to the original Ganzfeld protocol according to Bem et al. (2001)?
The magnitude of the effect’s size was directly related to how closely subsequent studies followed the initial Ganzfeld experimental protocol.
p.17
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What is a common tactic used by psychics in their predictions?
Using multiple endpoints, making predictions vague and open-ended.
p.15
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What is a major challenge in ESP research regarding results?
The replicability of findings in other studies.
p.13
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Overview
What are the three major types of extrasensory perception (ESP)?
Precognition, telepathy, and clairvoyance.
p.9
Prosopagnosia: Face Blindness
What is prosopagnosia?
A condition known as face blindness, where individuals have difficulty recognizing faces.
p.15
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What did the CIA's independent review of the Stargate program conclude?
The program produced statistically significant 'hits', but the reasons could not be determined.
p.10
Depth Perception: Monocular and Binocular Cues
What are binocular depth cues?
Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using both eyes.
p.16
Challenges in Replicating ESP Findings
What did critics argue about Bem's statistical methods?
They pointed to fundamental flaws and suggested adopting Bayesian inference as an alternative statistical paradigm.
p.9
Holistic Processing in Face Recognition
How do caricature artists relate to face recognition?
They create exaggerated versions of faces, which we can still recognize due to our brain's ability to fill in partial information.
p.17
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What does 'psi missing' refer to in the context of ESP?
Significantly worse than chance performance on ESP tasks.
p.9
Biological Bases of Face Recognition
Which brain region is central to face recognition?
The fusiform gyrus in the temporal lobe.
p.9
Biological Bases of Face Recognition
What happens when the fusiform gyrus is damaged?
It can result in prosopagnosia.
p.17
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
Why is it difficult to prove the existence of ESP?
In science, it is extremely difficult to prove a negative.
p.10
Motion Perception and Illusions
What is the phi phenomenon?
The illusory perception of movement produced by the successive flashing of images.
p.9
Biological Bases of Face Recognition
What is the 'grandmother cell' theory?
The idea that individual neurons might store specific memories, such as recognizing a particular person.
p.13
Motion Perception and Illusions
What does the Ebbinghaus–Titchener illusion demonstrate?
It causes us to perceive a circle as larger when surrounded by smaller circles and smaller when surrounded by larger circles.
p.13
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Overview
What is clairvoyance?
Perceptual knowledge of objects or people in the environment without the use of recognized sensory channels.
p.15
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What was the purpose of the US government's Stargate program?
To study the ability of remote viewers to acquire militarily useful information.
p.10
Depth Perception: Monocular and Binocular Cues
What is motion parallax?
The ability to judge the distance of moving objects based on their speed.
p.16
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What did Bem et al. (2015) conduct a meta-analysis on?
Experiments investigating 'retrospective cognition and affect', which included 69 attempted replications of Bem’s experiments.
p.13
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Overview
What is precognition?
Acquiring knowledge of future events other than by reasoning from current knowledge.
p.17
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What is a hallmark of mature sciences that is absent in ESP research?
An 'experimental recipe' that yields replicable results across independent laboratories.
p.9
Holistic Processing in Face Recognition
What is holistic processing in face recognition?
The ability to visualize a face as a whole rather than as a sum of its parts.
p.15
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What are Zener cards used for in ESP research?
To test precognition, telepathy, and clairvoyance.
p.15
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What hit rate did participants achieve in the Ganzfeld studies analyzed by Bem and Honorton?
Approximately 35 percent.
p.10
Motion Perception and Illusions
How does the brain perceive motion?
By comparing visual frames, similar to how a movie works.
p.17
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What is one reason people may believe in ESP despite inconsistent evidence?
Illusory correlation, where striking coincidences are remembered while non-coincidences are forgotten.
p.17
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What did Gene Emery track regarding psychic predictions?
Failed psychic predictions that did not come true.
p.16
Challenges in Replicating ESP Findings
What initiative did Caroline Watt start at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit?
A program to preregister parapsychology studies, their methods, predictions, and analysis methods before data collection.
p.13
Subliminal Perception and Its Effects
What is subliminal perception?
The processing of sensory information that occurs below the level of conscious awareness.
p.9
Prosopagnosia: Face Blindness
What do prosopagnosics rely on to recognize familiar people?
Non-facial cues like freckles, weight, eyeglasses, and clothing.
p.16
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What controversial finding did Bem's precognition studies suggest?
That people's ability to acquire knowledge of future events affects their present behavior.
p.16
Challenges in Replicating ESP Findings
What skepticism remains among scientists regarding Bem's positive results?
Many suspect that the positive results are due to publication bias, where journals do not publish failures to replicate.
p.13
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Overview
What is telepathy?
Knowledge of what another person is experiencing without the use of recognized sensory channels.
p.15
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What framework did Michael Thalbourne propose for studying ESP phenomena?
A single integrating framework.
p.16
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What did Milton and Wiseman (1999) find in their meta-analysis of Ganzfeld studies?
They found that the size of Ganzfeld effects was small and corresponded to chance differences in performance.
p.16
Challenges in Replicating ESP Findings
What issue does the ongoing debate over Ganzfeld studies highlight?
The fundamental problem that retrospective meta-analyses require decisions about studies after outcomes are known.
p.9
Biological Bases of Face Recognition
What is the significance of neurons in the hippocampus related to face recognition?
They fire selectively in response to familiar faces, suggesting a link to memory.
p.13
Subliminal Perception and Its Effects
How do researchers typically study subliminal perception?
By presenting a word or photograph extremely quickly, followed by another stimulus that blocks mental processing.
p.13
Extrasensory Perception (ESP) Overview
What is psychokinesis?
Directly affecting the environment by mental influence alone or by one’s mere presence.
p.10
Depth Perception: Monocular and Binocular Cues
What are monocular depth cues?
Stimuli that enable us to judge depth using only one eye.
p.15
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What issue plagued Rhine's initial ESP research with Zener cards?
Other investigators could not replicate his findings.
p.17
Scientific Evidence and Beliefs in ESP
What must ad-hoc hypotheses proposed by ESP proponents do to be considered credible?
They must survive rigorous experimental tests.
p.16
Challenges in Replicating ESP Findings
What was the outcome of attempts to replicate Bem's memory rehearsal study?
All three researchers failed to replicate Bem’s findings, showing no recall difference across studied and non-studied words.
p.13
Subliminal Perception and Its Effects
What effect do subliminally presented words related to emotions have on participants?
Participants exposed to words related to anger are more likely to rate others as hostile.
p.10
Biological Bases of Face Recognition
What is the current hypothesis regarding face recognition in the brain?
Sprawling networks of neurons are responsible for face recognition, rather than single cells.
p.10
Motion Perception and Illusions
What is motion blindness?
A disorder where patients cannot perceive ongoing motion due to missing frames of still images.
p.10
Depth Perception: Monocular and Binocular Cues
What is an example of a monocular depth cue?
Relative size, where more distant objects appear smaller than closer ones.
p.13
Motion Perception and Illusions
How do our hands respond to the Ebbinghaus–Titchener illusion?
Experiments show that participants' grasp remains on target despite the visual illusion.
