PSI, perception without awareness, and false recognition

Many parapsychologists consider psi to be an unconscious process, and comparisons between psi and other unconscious psychological processes have been common. Perception without awareness (PWA) is one phenomenon that has attracted attention from parapsychologists because of its striking similarities to psi processing. While many researchers have attempted to study psi and PWA, the field of PWA has undergone several methodological changes in recent years. New methodologies in PWA have superseded many of the traditional approaches, leaving much of the parapsychological work in the area outmoded. This article describes 2 experiments aimed at bringing comparisons between PWA and psi up to date. Experiment 1a is a replication of an established effect in the field of PWA. Participants were presented with a list of nouns before taking part in an old/new recognition test. If a new test word was preceded by a biasing stimulus consisting of the same word for 50 ms, participants tended to classify the new word as "old." This is known as the false recognition effect. Experiment 1b attempted to obtain a similar effect using psi as a biasing stimulus. Random new words were displayed to a sender, who allempted to induce false recognition in the receiver by influencing them to respond "old." No significant effect was found, although a nonsignificant gender interaction was observed. Results are discussed and future directions are suggested.