The Effects of Intuition and Attitudes Toward Gambling
on
ESP Performance During a Gambling Task


By Lance Storm

Department of Psychology University of Adelaide


(Investigator 85, 2002 July)


A psi experiment was conducted in the Department of Psychology, University of Adelaide, to test the tempering effects of attitudes towards various types of gambling and the personality disposition 'Intuition' on ESP performance in a card-identifying test set up as a gambling task. Individuals who are supportive of gambling (specifically referring to successful gamblers here) may be so oriented because they have certain dispositions (i.e., positive attitudes towards gambling) which bring about successful outcomes when they participate in gambling tasks (see L. E. Rhine, 1967, for examples).

Gamblers who are professional (assuming that they are generally successful) may also be so because they are strongly influenced by their intuition. Of course, there are those who lose habitually—the so-called 'problem gamblers', and others have merely a social interest in gambling as a form of harmless entertainment. These types may not be so strongly intuitive (if at all).

Some research into gambling using gambling scales has been carried out, and the sociological and psychological issues associated with gambling are well recognized, but no use whatsoever has been made of gambling scales as predictors of paranormal ability. Only three studies were found that featured psi tasks using gambling techniques (Brier & Tyminski, 1970; Don, McDonough, & Warren, 1998; Kugel, 1990-1991). None of these studies used gambling scales.

Insofar as a limited number of researchers have used participants in gambling situations to test paranormal ability, it remains to be seen whether gamblers per se (i.e., gamblers characterized as such on the basis of scores on gambling scales) are predisposed towards gambling success (or failure), since, as stated, no study yet has sought a relationship between attitude towards gambling and paranormal ability.


The Pseudo-Gambling Experiment

Participants were first required to complete 2 scales:

1.    The Gambling Attitude Scales (GAS; Kassinove, 1998), which comprises four subscales measuring attitude towards gambling in 'general', 'casino’, ‘horse-racing', and 'lotteries'.

2.    The Singer-Loomis (1996) Type Deployment Inventory (SL-TDI), which is a personality test that measures Extraverted Intuition and Introverted Intuition amongst other factors.

Participants then participated in a 'pseudo-gambling' card-identifying test, so-called because they were not required to make bets using their own money, although the decisions they made in the task were made as if they were gambling.

Each participant was presented with a 5 x 5 array of playing cards facedown, which was entirely covered over by a clear sheet of plastic (total number of cards = 25). In a total of five trials (each row represents a trial), participants were required to locate in each trial the Ace of Spades in a 'hand' of five cards, all cards of which were face down so that their faces could not be seen with the naked eye. For each trial, the probability of getting a hit by chance is P = 0.20 (i.e., one in five). In five trials, P = 1.00 (i.e., 5 x 0.20 = 1.00).
 
Participants were instructed to use hunches, guesswork, their 'sixth sense', and any other 'faculty’ or mode of behaviour or apprehension they considered helpful in making a correct card selection. They were also informed that they would win or lose according to those decisions. Participants were free to stop the task at any time and take the winnings accrued as of the time of cessation of the task. Structured this way, the 'pseudo-gambling' test took on the dynamism of a real gambling task because the participant felt that s/he was 'winning' or 'losing' without actually making a personal investment in the task. (Note that placement of the aces of spades by the experimenter's assistants was a random process involving the use of random number tables.)


Hypotheses

The following parapsychological hypotheses were proposed:

1.    The number of correctly identified aces of spades (spade-hitting) is above chance (P = 1.00).

2.    There is a positive relationship between spade-hitting and each of the four attitudes (as measured on the GAS): (i) attitude towards general gambling; (ii) attitude towards horse racing; (iii) attitude towards casino gambling; and (iv) attitude towards lotteries.

3.    There is a positive relationship between (i) spade-hitting and Extraverted Intuition (EN), and (ii) spade-hitting and Introverted Intuition (IN).


Results

A total of 100 participants volunteered for the experiment. The majority of the sample was comprised of University of Adelaide students, although 10 participants were members of PRISM International group (Paranormal Research Investigation and Monitoring Services). All 100 participants in the gambling experiment completed the GAS and SL-TDI scales, and five trials each in the forced-choice component of the experiment.

Hypothesis 1:
The number of correctly identified aces of spades (spadehitting) is above chance (P = 1.00). The number of aces of spades was above chance (M = 1.02, SD 0.82), but it was not significant,
t(99) = .245, p = .807. The hypothesis was not supported.
 
Hypothesis 2:
There is a positive relationship between spade-hitting and each of the four attitudes (as measured on the GAS): (i) attitude towards general gambling; (ii) attitude towards horse racing; (iii) attitude towards casino gambling; and (iv) attitude towards lotteries:

(i) The relationship between spade-hitting and general gambling was not positive.

 (ii) The relationship between spade-hitting and horse racing was positive, but it was extremely weak and not significant, r(98) = .04, p = .342, one-tailed (where p < .05 is considered significant).

(iii) The relationship between spade-hitting and casino gambling was not positive.
 
(iv) The relationship between spade-hitting and lotteries and was not positive.

Hypothesis 3:
There is a positive relationship between (i) spade-hitting and EN, and (ii) spade-hitting and IN. The relationship between spade-hitting and EN was positive, but not significant, r(98) = .09, p = .342, one-tailed. The relationship between spade-hitting and IN was positive, but not significant, r(98) = .13,  p = .104, one-tailed.


A Reconsideration of the GAS (A Post Hoc Analysis)
 
The present study sought to find relationships between scores on the subscales of the GAS and psi performance. These relationships were thought to be linear. However, from the non-significant results relevant to the GAS subscales presented above (Hypothesis 2), there seemed to be good reason to reconsider the GAS, with particular emphasis on the underlying influence of gambling attitudes on the correlations tested in this hypothesis.

It was conjectured that extreme attitudes on gambling may inhibit other functions, including the psi function—low scorers would have an uncooperative attitude, which may interfere with psi, whereas high scorers, even with a cooperative attitude, may suffer the negative consequences of ‘heightened anxiety’ as a result of trying too hard (for a similar case, see Broughton & Alexander, 1997).
 
'Moderate' scores on the GAS scales, however, might reflect a type of individual who is even-keeled on the subject of gambling. Such a participant, free from the constraints of bias for or against gambling, generally and in its various forms (i.e., horse-racing, casino, and lotteries), may be able to use his or her psi function in an unencumbered manner. Thus, moderate scores may still show a linear relationship with psi scores, as originally hypothesized, and this group of 'gambling moderates' may produce different results from those already found in Hypotheses 1 and 3. (Testing Hypothesis 2 again would not be wise as the limited variance of each subscale would adversely affect the outcomes.)

On the basis of the above rationale, scores for the four scales were combined into an unbiased aggregate gambling score by totalling the four scores of the four GAS subscales. The aggregate score absorbs the diverse effects of the various attitudes on the subscales. The sample was then divided into three groups (low’ scorers: n = 34; ‘moderate’ scorers: n = 33; and 'high' scorers: n = 33) based on aggregated scores.

When Hypothesis I was retested for each of the three groups, there were no significant hit-rates, which is understandable given the small number of participants in each group. However, when Hypothesis 3 was retested for the three groups, only the moderate group produced two significant correlations:
spade-hitting and EN, r(31) = .31, p = .042, one-tailed; spade- hitting and IN, r(31) = .32, p = .037, one-tailed (where p < .05 is considered significant).

 
Discussion

In the planned analyses, no relationships were found between (i) psi and any of the gambling attitudes, and (ii) psi and intuition (either extraverted or introverted). It was then argued that a moderate attitude towards gambling would be psi-conducive in a way that freed the moderate participant from the inhibitory effects of extreme viewpoints about gambling, which could scramble the psi function.
 
This argument was validated to some extent. In the post hoc analysis, there were significant correlations of psi with the two types of intuition, which therefore appears to be an important personality factor influencing the psi function. Specifically, individuals in the present study (provided their GAS aggregate score was 'moderate'), who scored high on intuition (extraverted or introverted) tended to identify the ace of spades more often that individuals who scored low on intuition.

In conclusion, exploratory analysis is essential in all fields of research, but especially paranormal research, where we do not fully understand the nature of psi. In this regard, uncovering the dynamics of psi as it pertains to human subjects may require constant reconsideration of the hypotheses proposed. Given that certain types of people seem better able to elicit psi than others, it is clear that only by identifying these types as specifically as possible can we then go on to develop ways of confidently applying psi in the real world.

 
References

Brier, R. M., & Tyminski, W. V. (1970). Psi Applications: I. A preliminary attempt. Journal of Parapsychology, 34, 1-25.
 
Broughton, R. S., & Alexander, C. H. (1997). Autoganzfeld II: An attempted replication of the PRL ganzfeld research. Journal of Parapsychology, 61, 209-226.

Don, N. S., McDonough, B. E., & Warren, C. A. (1998). Event-related potential (ERP) indicators of unconscious psi: A replication using subjects unselected for psi. European Journal of Parapsychology, 62, 127-145.

Kassinove, J. I. (1998). Development of the Gambling Attitude Scales: Preliminary findings. Journal of Clinical Psychology, 54, 763-771.

Kugel, W. (1990-1991). Amplifying precognition: Two experiments with roulette. European Journal of Parapsychology, 8, 85-97.

Rhine, L. E. (1967). ESP and in life and lab: Tracing hidden channels. NY: Collier-Mcmillan.
 
Singer, J., & Loomis, M. (1996). Technical Manual for the Singer-Loomis Type Deployment Inventory. Gresham, OR: Moving Boundaries.


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