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Volume 8: Number 2: Article 2
Series Position Effects In Random Event Generator Experiments
Brenda J. Dunne, York H. Dobyns, Robert G. Jahn, Roger D. Nelson, Princeton
Engineering Anomalies Research, C-131 Engineering Quadrangle, Princeton
University, Princeton, NJ 08544
Appendix: "Serial Position Effects in the Psychological Literature"
by Angela Thomson
Effect sizes achieved by human operators in random event generator
anomalies experiments show correlations with the ordinal positions of
the experimental series in both the collective and individual databases.
Specifically, there are statistically significant tendencies for operators
to produce better scores over their first series, then to fall off in
performance in their second and third series, and then to recover to
some intermediate levels during their fourth, fifth, and subsequent
series. Such correlations appear in both local and remote experiments,
and are also indicated over a sequence of different experimental protocols,
but no similar effects are found in baseline or calibration data. These
serial position patterns thus appear to be primarily psychological in
origin, and may subsume the rudimentary "decline," "primacy," "recency,"
and "terminal" effects propounded in the parapsychological and psychological
literature. The results also emphasize the importance of very large
individual databases in determining the asymptotic effect sizes in any
given experiment of this type.
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