A reexamination of nonintentional precognition with openness to experience, creativity, psi beliefs, and luck beliefs as predictors of success.

Abstract

The notion that psi may be able to function without conscious intent and mediate adaptive consequences is a feature of several theories of psi. In particular, Stanford’s “Psi-mediated Instrumental Response” (PMIR) model predicts that psi can operate without conscious awareness, facilitating advantageous outcomes by triggering preexisting behaviours in response to opportunities or threats in the environment. Luke and colleagues tested elements of this model over 4 studies involving an implicit, forced-choice precognition task in which participants were positively or negatively rewarded based on their performance in relation to the MCE. The 4 studies combined yielded significant evidence of an implicit precognition effect. The present study attempted to replicate this precognition effect using a more refined contingent reward system employing images from the International Affective Picture System. The number of trials per participant was increased to enhance statistical power, whereas all other design elements remained consistent with the original studies. Fifty participants achieved a tacit precognition hit rate marginally greater than the MCE, but the extent of their outperformance was not significant. Nevertheless, together with Luke and colleagues’ 4 studies, the combined effect size remains significant (Stouffer Z = 3.25, p = 0.001). Findings are interpreted in relation to Stanford’s PMIR model.