Psychic Assessment and Diagnosis 3 — Questions and Answers
Question 1: Which diagnostic distinction separates mediumship from clairvoyance in formal psychic assessment?
- Mediumship involves physical sensations; clairvoyance does not
- Mediumship claims communication with deceased individuals; clairvoyance involves perceiving non-deceased targets (Correct answer)
- Clairvoyance is always visual; mediumship is always auditory
- Mediumship requires trance state; clairvoyance does not
Correct answer: Mediumship claims communication with deceased individuals; clairvoyance involves perceiving non-deceased targets
The key diagnostic distinction is the claimed source: mediumship involves purported contact with the deceased, while clairvoyance involves perception of living or inanimate targets.
Question 2: A valid psychic ability test must control for which confounding variable above all others?
- Subject's diet on test day
- Cold reading and sensory leakage (Correct answer)
- Moon phase during testing
- Subject's prior meditation experience
Correct answer: Cold reading and sensory leakage
Cold reading techniques and inadvertent sensory cues are the primary confounds that must be eliminated through blinding and standardized protocols.
Question 3: When assessing psychokinesis (PK), which type of study design provides the strongest evidence?
- Single-subject case reports
- Randomized, double-blind micro-PK trials with electronic random event generators (Correct answer)
- Testimonials from multiple witnesses
- Uncontrolled demonstrations at public events
Correct answer: Randomized, double-blind micro-PK trials with electronic random event generators
Double-blind micro-PK studies using random event generators remove experimenter bias and provide statistically analyzable data.
Question 4: Which psychological condition must be ruled out when a person reports receiving constant psychic messages from spirits?
- Seasonal affective disorder
- Auditory hallucinations associated with psychotic disorders (Correct answer)
- Attention deficit hyperactivity disorder
- Chronic fatigue syndrome
Correct answer: Auditory hallucinations associated with psychotic disorders
Persistent unsolicited spirit communications overlap symptomatically with auditory hallucinations and require differential diagnosis from psychotic disorders.
Question 5: The 'sheep-goat effect' in psychic research refers to which finding?
- Psychics perform better with animal targets than abstract symbols
- Believers in psychic phenomena (sheep) tend to score higher on ESP tests than skeptics (goats) (Correct answer)
- Two subjects perform better together than alone
- Morning sessions yield higher scores than evening sessions
Correct answer: Believers in psychic phenomena (sheep) tend to score higher on ESP tests than skeptics (goats)
The sheep-goat effect is the documented tendency for believers in ESP to score above chance while skeptics score at or below chance on the same tests.
Question 6: Which element is essential in a proper remote viewing assessment to ensure accuracy of scoring?
- The viewer must visit the site in person afterward
- Blind judging by an independent evaluator who does not know the target (Correct answer)
- The session must be conducted at night
- The target must be a photograph rather than a real location
Correct answer: Blind judging by an independent evaluator who does not know the target
Blind judging ensures the evaluator cannot consciously or unconsciously favor matches, making the scoring process objective.
Question 7: In psychic assessment, a 'hit rate' significantly above 25% on a four-choice forced-selection test is considered meaningful when which condition is also met?
- The subject reports feeling confident
- The result survives a p-value threshold of 0.05 or lower across many trials (Correct answer)
- At least three researchers observe the session
- The subject has no formal education
Correct answer: The result survives a p-value threshold of 0.05 or lower across many trials
Statistical significance requires that the probability of results occurring by chance falls below the accepted threshold, typically p < 0.05, over a sufficient number of trials.
Psychic Assessment and Diagnosis 3
Which diagnostic distinction separates mediumship from clairvoyance in formal psychic assessment?