Ever want your own Zener cards?


I didn’t think so. I never did, either. But now at least you can get them for free: the JREF has a teaching module on ESP that you can download.

It’s pretty good. The module strongly emphasizes good record keeping and rigor, which are important skills for young investigators. I was a little disappointed in the bit about statistics—it basically tells the students to use a table to look up values, don’t worry about the math behind it, and trust us, getting 8 hits in 25 trials does not mean you have ESP. I would think the very best first module to throw at students would be an introduction to statistics; have the kids throw dice or flip coins and tally results, and learn what randomness really looks like and how we test for it.

Particularly if you’re going to critically examine parapsychology, an understanding of how subtle biases can lead to statistically significant results is a good idea, because I suspect that the casual fudging of a few numbers is the foundation of the whole field. Just look at Daryl Bem’s work to see what I mean.