Reliabilities and psychological correlates of guessing and scoring behavior in a forced-choice ESP task

The possible relationship between characteristics of guessing behavior, such as repetition avoidance, and belief in ESP, was analyzed in the available data of ten experiments on perceptual defensiveness and ESP performance carried out in Iceland between 1977-1991. Several commonly reported characteristics of guessing behavior were defined as variables. Test-retest reliability is shown to be highest for central preference (with regard to the row of targets on the screen) and for repetition avoidance. Similar to an earlier study, the data revealed a significant test-retest reliability of ESP performance across two ESP tasks. Central preference and repetition avoidance did not correlate significantly with the psychological variables of neuroticism, extraversion, psychotism, defensiveness, psi-belief and religiosity. Specifically, the correlation between repetition avoidance and psi-belief could not be confirmed. Some degree of interaction between the two subjects while competing on a task is indicated, notably positive correlations between them on psi-belief and repetition avoidance.