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“Statistical Significance in Psychical Research”

Abstract

(1) THE issue on which I chose to argue1 was clearly stated in my first paragraph. Taking the psychical research data (that is, the residuum when fraud and incompetence are excluded), I tried to show that these now threw more doubt upon existing presuppositions in the theory of probability than in the theory of communication. Thus, though not doubting the validity of some of the experimental work by accepted standards, I was led to question the validity of one of the accepted standards.

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References

  1. Nature, 172, 154 (1953).

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  2. Coover, John E., “Experiments in Psychical Research” (Stanford Univ. Press, 1917). Richmond, Nigel, J. Soc. Psych. Res., 36, 577 (1952). Forwald, H., J. Parapsychol., 16, 282 (1952).

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  3. Soal, S. G., and Goldney, K. M., Proc. Soc. Psych. Res., 47, 22 (1943).

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  4. Soal, S. G., Proc. Soc. Psych. Res., 46, 152 (1942).

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  5. Fisher, Ronald A., “The Design of Experiments” (London, 1947).

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BROWN, G. “Statistical Significance in Psychical Research”. Nature 172, 594–595 (1953). https://doi.org/10.1038/172594b0

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