Wiseman, R. &
Greening, E. (2005). ‘It’s still bending’: Verbal suggestion and alleged
psychokinetic ability. British Journal of
Psychology, 96, 115-127.
The authors examined the role of verbal suggestion as a possible explanation for the ‘after effect’ aspect in the phenomenon of psychokinetic metal bending (PKMB—the ability to deform metallic objects by thought alone). PKMB is usually demonstrated by supposed psychics or magicians who make a key or piece of cutlery appear to spontaneously bend with no visible external application of force. The after effect occurs when the bent object is place on a table and appears to continue to bend on its own. They tested the role of previous belief in paranormal phenomena and the possible mitigating role of memory for verbal suggestion in experiencing the after effect. Verbal suggestion has been used to influence recollection of previously presented commonplace events (misinformation paradigm) to a great extent, but little research has been done on the influence of verbal suggestion on ongoing events of an unusual nature.
Experiment 1
Participants: 46 undergraduates participated for class credit. The name of the first researcher was kept off of all recruitment posters and contact emails due to his known skepticism of paranormal phenomena.
Methods: Participants were administered a Belief in the Paranormal Questionnaire (BPQ) consisting of 6 questions prior to being shown a 2-minute film depicting a demonstration of PKMB in which a performer bends a key and places it back on the table. In the Suggestion condition, the soundtrack included a one-sentence suggestion that the key was still bending, in the No Suggestion condition this part of the soundtrack was eliminated. Following the video, participants completed a Fixed Response Questionnaire (Fixed-RQ) that included questions about what happened in the movie and the dependent measure question about whether or not the key continued to bend. This questionnaire also assessed confidence in responses. Participants were tested in small groups of up to five.
Results: Based sum of BPQ, participants were split in half along median split into Believers and Nonbelievers. The Suggestion group was significantly more likely to say the key was still bending. There was no effect for Believer/Nonbeliever and no interaction. In the Suggestion group, nearly 40% endorsed the key was still bending whereas only 5% endorsed this question in the No Suggestion group. There was no difference in confidence ratings between the two groups.
Experiment 2
Participants: 100 undergraduates participated for class credit.
Methods: All materials and methods were the same as Experiment 1 with the addition of a Free Response Questionnaire (Free-RQ) to test for memory of the suggestion made by the performer. In Question 1 on this questionnaire, participants were asked to describe in detail what happened in the film up to the point when the performer sets the key on the table; Question 2 asked for a description of what happened once the key was placed down on the table (i.e., if the key bent, if the performer made a suggestion). Group sizes were as large as 10.
Results: Believer and Nonbeliever groups were formed as in Experiment 1. The Suggestion group was significantly more likely to endorse the key was still bending item on the Fixed-RQ. There was no effect of Believer/Nonbeliever and no interaction, replicating Experiment 1. The possible confound of group size was found to be nonsignificant through two analyses. In the Suggestion group, 36% believed the key continued to bend while no participants in the No Suggestion believed this to be the case. Confidence was found to be significantly greater for those that believed the key continued to bend than those that did not. Question 2 on the Free-RQ was coded in a yes/no manner on two criteria: if the performer’s suggestion was recalled, if the key was seen as continuing to bend. There was a significant relationship where those who recalled the suggestion did not see the key as bending while those who did not recall the suggestion did see the key as bending. Believers were no more likely to recall the suggestion or to see the key as still bending.
Discussion
The results show that verbal suggestion can be influential in the perception of ongoing events just as it has been shown to be in the recollection of past events in previous research. The authors propose that this paradigm be expanded to field work on similar phenomena as well as more commonplace experiences. These results are agued to bring into serious question any testimony about paranormal events. Proposed explanations for the link found between suggestion recollection and endorsing the key continuing to bend were social constructivism and schema theory.
Important Legal
Disclaimer: The preceding are articles we read together in the Lampinen Lab
Fall 2005 false memory reading group. By clicking on the button next to the
article you can see the summary of that article. The summary was prepared by
the student presenting that article and it is of course the case that the views
expressed in the summary do not necessarily represent the views of the reading
group as a whole, Dr. Lampinen, the Lampinen Lab, Hugo's, the University of
Arkansas, the Razorback Football or Basketball teams (although we're not sure
about cross country), people living down the street from us, Bob Dylan, Jack
Fate, our extended families, or anyone else for that matter except for the
student who wrote the summary (and they don't necessarily believe what they
wrote either).