First, many thanks to everyone who took part in the first trial today. All of the technology performed well, and there were great comments on the blog and twitter.
A quick word about the voting procedure. As explained in this post, the photograph that receives the greatest number of votes on each trial will be taken as the group’s decision (think of the ‘Ask the audience’ segments in the ‘Who Wants To Be A Millionaire’ quiz show!). This is called ‘majority voting’ and is similar the well known wisdom of the crowds concept. As well as looking for an overall effect, it will also be interesting to see how certain subgroups, such as those who indicate they have psychic ability and are very confident about their decision, have voted.
Finally, Tom Simonite at New Scientist magazine ran a wordcloud on all of the Twitter comments posted during the test trial. I think it is an interesting way of identifying the trends that emerged….
Any thoughts?
Exculding words like “lots” and “sitting” etc, the biggest words seem to be buildings, grass, trees, blue, green, park, road.
ALL of those are in some of the 5 pics posted.
Well done, it’s proof folks…!
proof that it is all random! no real ESP
I agree – not proof – smoke and mirrors
it would make sense you were there and not “fire, smoke, sulfur, suffering” – the people’s benign words equals randomness, to me at least, but who am I?
Please visit my site.
I need your help.
ps it’s cool
Fascinating. Slightly disappointed that the words Giant, Orange, Traffic and Cone didn’t feature more prominently. I must have been the only one!
I see my word in there! It’s the one that proves I’m psychic!
I think it perfectly natural for a bunch of random people sat at desks/in offices to think about green spaces with trees when prompted for a location
tutut , well…i was not sat at a desk or in an office while submitting the answer.
The way the wordcloud is presented is suggestive (in shape and structure) of photo D…Was this intentional? Now I’m thinking that this expt is a red herring…And is part of a much wider strategy, which may indeed include the testing of some psychic abilities, but is primarily focused on changing our relationship with words and written language…Born out the need to be more environmentally aware of all the known costs of our traditional communication systems…Thereby progressing our current culture from low context, to high context…A cullture that is able to absorb comunications from a multitude of sources, quickly…In order to do that, much more participant information would be more useful…So now I’m a bit worried…I thought this of Twitter in itself, now I’m even more convinced…
It’s an interesting way to weigh the comments. Looking forward to seeing the general impressions it shows for the other trials.
This seems like a fun experiment. I look forward to participating tomorrow. I missed the one today but I plan on participating tomorrow.
Well one way to look at it would make those a 50/50 hit. Inside vs. Outside. Not exactly remarkable – and not what the picture shows either. Do see some sky – but mostly it’s a big building.
So… What’s a hit?
“Standing outside a building” seems like a good one – but how hard is that to guess?
For example I guessed “on top of a building” but he’s at the bottom. So I don’t get points for building – and i don’t consider it a hit. And i figured the parking deck picture was a closer hit – and even odder was that I specifically picked an urban site because his last picture was a rural one and I guessed he’d be more likely to do something in town.
The wordcloud is such a fun, artistic, and very effective way to see the trends and popularity of words used so far. !
As of yesterday and today – I am pretty much using associative thinking when envisioning you somewhere. As you are associated with a university and have a unique approach – I have been seeing you standing next to an MIT building near Mass Ave! (it worked today – chose ‘D’….) So much for psychic, though.
I think it’s important to remember that the accuracy rate reported by trained viewers in the military program was 60%. That is a pretty significant number given the infident number of possibilities presented by each target. Most of those taking part here have no training, and my guess is that the numbers will be only slightly better than basic probability. The real test would be to take those with significant accuracy in the test, and retest them seperately. While not perfect, I believe their numbers would be high enough to be considered significant.
If one does take a look at the U.S. military program, there is ample evidence to indicate the results were significant in terms of probability and something far more than a red herring.
Sorry – unable 2 comment on Wordcloud as on mobile. Re Monday’s pre-trial: My intuition- ESP was 1OO% correct. Tried for an hour for connection to link + lines were just closed. Clearly, would have chosen the target photo. On Tuesday, i texted “not much noise. .. Library or museum…” But then was unable 2 see pics clearly on mobile. Had 2 make wild guess which was wrong. Therefore, had 2 say NOT confident re psychic ability which is also wrong. Someone wrote the target building is a information annexe to Edinburgh University. That would do me for thinking LIBRARY. so if i bad not been disadvantaged by technical problems, i would have been correct both times.The weird feeling i got on Tuesday after 5 mins visualizing was one of low mood. An wondering he Richarda was feeling apprehensive etc at the time. Could it be arranged for pics to be screen size for mobiles? Hoping for better luck tomorrow. cheers.
I think that the trend that emerged was influenced by the location picture of the prior day.
My tweet was way off but I ‘guessed’ correctly on the photo. I think my tweet was wrong because I used my own store of verbal images and constructed a little description that sounded right to me. (I saw window dolls and an old Beamer.) But when it came to the photos i was moved to choose by ideas related to other things. Where would I stand if i were Mr Wiseman? Would i stand in a fancy tunnel of foliage or at the corner of an ordinary building? I wouldn’t have stood at any of the other places in the group of photos. That’s why i voted correctly.
In the case of this subject, the experiment bombed.
A crowd thought cloud, I love it!
We are all ONE.
Neighsayers it’s time to open your mind and heart!
I wonder if the things we get in our minds must match with the place where you were. If a lot of people felt ‘green’ things, maybe it was the answer of yesterday. Or from tomorrow. Between heaven and earth they can manage a lot, and it will not always be the answer we want to hear.
Yeah,
I saw yesterday’s answer aswell… I tweeted concrete and greenery… Voted on pic two… Maybe my psychic skills are chronicly a day behind schedule….
Very pretty cloud, but utterly unreadable by phone and too depressingly jumbled to take time to read otherwise. Maybe doing a list as well would be usefull!
Been right on both days. Yesterday’s building was’t as tall as I guessed, but got the sandstone colour right, though I think I tweeted granite/limestone instead of sandstone/granite. Easy mistake when you’ve got one eye looking for the bus you’re waiting for!
Love the word cloud! Will there be more?
I suspect that most people, if they’re taking the exercise seriously, will find a bit of quiet and try and relax. It might be just me but if I’m relaxing and imagine a space, it’s more likely to key into that need to relax. Park life.
We need to synchronize…. ie at exactly three we all scan stepwise through a sequence – back and forth – when one begins to ‘stand out’ then that is the one.
In the test I saw green grass and high trees because I was synchronizing with others in the test.
[...] Richard Wiseman placed an interesting blog post on Trial 1, Wordclouds and Majority Voting « Richard Wiseman's BlogHere’s a brief overviewMaybe doing a list as well would be usefull! Been right on both days. Yesterday’s building was’t as tall as I guessed, but got the sandstone colour right, though I think I tweeted granite/limestone instead of sandstone/granite. … [...]
buildings, grass, water, tress, park, blue, green.
Yes, that covers just about any possible photo you could have.
My tweet turned out to be a pretty close, but I chose the wrong picture because I didn’t ‘see’ height and shiny surfaces (windows). I ruled out the third one because I hadn’t seen curves, so went for the first picture. nevertheless, despite being uncertain about my own abilities, I was quite surprised how close I came, and that the keywords I saw were all there – it was the few that were missing that threw me (admittedly I was at work and didn’t have the full 30 mins to concentrate!)
Interesting. Will definitely take part again today, workload permitting.
Fascinating word cloud. So many of the word are totally generic, applicable to 90+% of any picture you’re likely to take, but then you get the odd word (e.g. coffee) that’s a whole lot more specific. Those are the interesting words.
In Trial 1 I do not think that the picture was a large enough view. There would need to be more information than just BUILDING in the photo or the I think the results could easily be considered random. I saw more than just the building although in my description I did put building, I believe I saw the entire street view
Maybe even have the incorrect choices be somewhat similar to the correct choice.
Fascinating how many people in these comments are convinced that they ‘saw’ the correct location but were prevented from displaying their psychic prowess through some bizarre process where they tweeted the wrong words and chose the wrong photos.
The same thing happens to me when I play the lottery. I think of the winning numbers and then, rather peculiarly, I select the wrong ones on the ticket.
I see a big tree, road in some town with white or red car…building in the back, some road table and a man and other people. It is sunny day, green grass near the road.
obviously we were all connected with someone other than dr wiseman. someone who was in a park with lots of green grass and trees, blue water and some buildings…
Sounds like God!
i like that! hehehe
A big city with a lot of skyscrapers, there’s a beautiful open place in the city, with a lot of trees, clear water, it’s a sunny day.
Lots of good out put I would be angry if all advertizing or entertainment was soley bassed on one entity. You have to wonder are you a sadist massakist that will go at no lengths to screw the future over? Then again didn’t have time to read all the comments need to budget my brain power. Exsperiment is a terrible word!!!!!!! Cool cloud shed the rais and let the rain trickle down ,who you work with oh I’m in sollitary confinement nobody crew you all or should I say Fuck You! Better late then never!!
New beginning erase that comment!
Deffinately oppertunity for research do change. Words are cool and very interesting to me so I thought it was tactfully done. Excited about new ideas and trends that begin in the world today.
Yesterday I actually visualized the picture that was used in the trial run on Monday even though I had never seen it. I chose B because it closely resembled what I had visualized. However, when I followed the link back to the website after voting I realized that what I had visualized was almost identical to the picture used in the trial. Very interesting!
my boyfriend did that too!
I find it interesting, looking at the thought cloud that people are turning more to a lowered brain wave function as if they were trying to regulate the brainwaves to focus on the ESP levels. Nature, blue, green, grass, etc all relate to environments in which the body would be more apt to meditate.
I believe that at least in this experiment that if there is a suggestive conclusion, it is not that people are using ESP, but that they have the ability to relax and turn off their brains no matter what environment they happen to be in. This is intrinsic in the ability of self to maintain regularity in an environment of stress. So, in that sense…this was cool!
Will participate in the next experiment as I missed this one. Will see what the comments are like.
Word cloud is interesting, but basically involves all the words that had been in my mind since the experiments and Monday’s trial commenced. Is it proof?!
Good luck with the rest of the week. Will be continuing to take part
What a great idea you had with this experiment. Besides all the excitement about results for those conducting it and for all of us participating, I think it gives so much room for everyone to plan new things.
Certainly I agree with comments regarding that some things people see or get not necessarily are from that moment or targeted only to where you are, could be to surroundings or, people working with you and even the net created to synchronize with you may get into someone’s visions…
Hey, thanks for this, never thought in Twitter I would be invited to participate #LivingtheUnseen (my tag).
May the rest of the experiment be thrice what you expect!
Wow..the biggest words in the wordcloud seem pretty close to the location. :O
Park, sitting, green, grass, red….
Pretty neat!
i couldnt decide between about 3 of them. none were right! lol. i wonder if it had any of the things i was thinking about in it though. when the pictures came up nothing hit out at me, to be honest, not like yesterday (when i got it right).
i went with the graffiti one because i kept thinking about a wall and a small park area off the beaten path with some water nearby but not in the picture. i went for that because that image might be somewhere like the place i was thinking of.
the strongest image i was getting was of a concreted area next to a grassy area… at a stretch. but i was thinking of a path, a wall and lots of lines so i guess that doesnt work at all!
disappointed but not surprised – oh well – onto tomorrow!
The best thing about this experiment is that I’m learning how to interpret the images that flash in my mind – or maybe I should say – stop interpretting. My mind wants to put a name to the elements that it sees. For instance, in the 2nd trial I saw a circle of arcs and my mind wanted to identify it with a water fountain with nozzels pointing toward the center. I’ve now learned to draw the shapes and write “it reminds me of” this or that. What’s really funny is that I drew a very black shape that wasn’t in any of the choices. It ended up being Richard’s shirt in the follow-up photo. I’m still not sure if I’m remote viewing Richard or the future photos that will be posted. This is a really fun and enlightening experiment. I hope you come up with many more.
This is the first time I’ve really messed with anything like this. Whats bizarre for me is that I started sketching something when the experiment started and there were several similarities to A. So much so that I was actually very startled to see the pictures when they were announced.
And then to find I voted A and was wrong.
Bizarre.
[...] Trial 1, Wordclouds and Majority Voting First, many thanks to everyone who took part in the first trial today. All of the technology performed well, and [...] [...]