Psychic Assessment and Diagnosis 3

Question 1

Which diagnostic distinction separates mediumship from clairvoyance in formal psychic assessment?

Accepted Answer

Mediumship claims communication with deceased individuals; clairvoyance involves perceiving non-deceased targets

Answer

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?

Accepted Answer

Cold reading and sensory leakage

Answer

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?

Accepted Answer

Randomized, double-blind micro-PK trials with electronic random event generators

Answer

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?

Accepted Answer

Auditory hallucinations associated with psychotic disorders

Answer

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?

Accepted Answer

Believers in psychic phenomena (sheep) tend to score higher on ESP tests than skeptics (goats)

Answer

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.

(Psychic) Psychic Ability Test Practice Test

(Psychic) Psychic Ability Test Practice Test

Psychic Assessment and Diagnosis 3