Explanations for superstitious behaviour

Yesterday (Tues 24th) we looked at the behavioural explanation for why people believe in superstitions and make errors of causality. We also looked at a few cognitive factors, including dual-processing (using our logical and intuitive brains at the same time).

Today's ppt is here. The fill-in-the-gaps activity is here.

Coincidence and probability judgements

Today and yesterday we looked at explanations for why people believe in psi - they could be poor at dealing with coincidences and making probability judgements. There could be evolutionary (adaptive) reasons for this, or it could be a matter of lower cognitive ability (though this isn't a consistent finding).

Today's ppt is here.

The two-page handout that we spent quite a long time filling in is here. 

Psychokinesis

Yesterday (Tuesday 3rd) we looked at how psychokinesis (the manipulation of objects or events without physical contact) has been studied experimentally. We looked at one study in detail, by Richard Wiseman, that nicely illustrates the power of suggestion and experimenter effects. We also evaluated the results behind psychokinetic studies and some of the implications. Micro-PK (eg predicting a dice rolling or influencing random numbers) has been introduced as a slightly more objective way of studying the phenomena.

Today's ppt is here.

We answered some exam questions - please finish these if you did not do so - these are listed on the last slide of the ppt.