From: Richard Loosemore (rpwl@lightlink.com)
Date: Sat Dec 31 2005 - 07:11:35 MST
The debate started with questions of free will etc., and nobody tried to
squelch that debate, even though it was getting a little tedious.
Your comment about "1 in 200 happens a lot" is not correct in this
context: there are sophisticated protocols for designing and analysing
experiments in psychology, and conducting the experiment in the way that
I did, a probability against chance of 1 in 200 is reckoned to be very
significant. 1 in 20 is the standard threshold for a "significant" result.
Also, you have said, as people keep doing on this list, that
repeatability is the touchstone that destroys the argument for
parapsychology: this would be a perfectly valid point, if it were not
the fact that there ARE repeatable experiments. Simple as that. It
does not matter how many times this is contradicted by people who cannot
be bothered to look at the actual research.
I seem to remember Leonardo fighting battles like this five hundred
years ago. "Nature is my only teacher" I believe it was he said.
Meaning, I get my information by actually asking questions of Nature and
taking heed of the answers she gives; I don't parrot the teachings of
Authority or repreat rumours and myths.
Richard Loosemore
TC wrote:
> 1 in 200 happens a LOT. Without repeatability, experimental results are
> nothing.
>
> And come on, guys, even if you're all absolutely right, paranormal activity
> is SL3 at best (let alone arguing over Sue Blackmore's qualifications.) You
> should really take this off-list.
>
> -TC
>
>
> -----Original Message-----
> From: owner-sl4@sl4.org [mailto:owner-sl4@sl4.org] On Behalf Of Richard
> Loosemore
> Sent: Friday, December 30, 2005 4:13 PM
> To: sl4@sl4.org
> Subject: Re: Actually, Psychological Bulletin is a mainstream publication
>
> <...>
>
> To those of you not well versed in experimental design, that means I
> predicted the correlation ahead of time, and the first time I did the
> experiment, it turned up and if the effect was pure fluke, then it was a
> 1 in 200 chance.
>
> <...>
>
>
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