| Reference code: | PT/FB/BL-2010-193.04 |
| Location: | Arquivo PCA - Pasta 16/2010
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Title:
| An experimental study of physiological connectedness among twins in relation to attachment [PA]
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| Publication year: | 2015
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URL:
| http://www.parapsych.org/uploaded_files/pdfs/00/00/00/00/58/2015_pa-spr_book_of_abstracts_a4_size.pdf
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| Abstract/Results: | ABSTRACT:
Parapsychological research into distant interactions between individuals seems to indicate that the bond between sender and receiver is important. The present study was designed to investigate the ostensible relationship between telepathy and attachment between twins. By applying the concept of attachment from developmental psychology, this becomes the first study in parapsychology to explore the degree of attachment between twins as a potential dependent variable relating to their apparent telepathic connection. At the current stage of evaluating a new methodology, we report the design and findings of the pilot study. From an initial pool of thirty pairs of twins, four pairs of identical twins were selected on the basis of their responses to the Exceptional Experiences Questionnaire and on the basis of the availability of both twins to take part in the study. The test procedure required each of them to alternate in the role of sender in which they were exposed to a shock or surprise stimuli and in the role of receiver in which they were physiologically monitored for their electrodermal responses (EDR). Senders were presented with altogether five stimuli, one stimulus during each of the five trials per twin session. For each trial, the stimulus was presented during a 30 second period randomly chosen from eight possible such epochs composing in total four minutes. With a further 30 seconds added to establish baselines before and after each session, this meant each session would last five minutes. Graphs from 19 of the useable sessions belonging to 3 pairs of twins were analyzed by the lead researcher (GB), who was blind
to the time epochs in which the stimuli had been presented by the researcher working with the senders (AP). An independent evaluation of the EDRs from the EDR, in this study used for the receiver was carried out by the designer of the equipment. The task here was to identify a peak of the graph in the receiver’s reaction which might approximately correspond to the midpoint in the period the stimulus had been presented to the sender. In four sessions out of the 19, these identifications corresponded to the actual exposure period for the shock or surprise stimulus – constituting so-called “hits”, compared to the MCE = 2.375. Although this fails to reach significance, p >.05, three out of these four correct placements were contributed by just one of the twins. The attachment data that twins contributed via the EEQ questionnaire indicated that all the twins in the current study seemed to experience similar high levels of attachment. This consistency in strong and close relationships meant of course there was a lack of variance as concerns the hypothesis that attachment would predict the scores. The results of the Experiences in Close Relationships – Revised (ECR) indicated that all the twins had very low scores on attachment-related anxiety and avoidance in their relationships. The profiles of twins having many hits in the telepathy experiment as regards any aspects of dysfunctional attachment (anxiety and avoidance) were not significantly different from those of the others. The data provides justification for a major study using this methodology with selected pairs of twins. Some major improvements in the design were suggested. One of these involves the synchronous monitoring of the electrodermal activity for the sender as well as the receiver in order to give a precise record of the timing and the effect of the shock stimuli.
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| Accessibility: | Document exists in file
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Language:
| eng
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Author:
| Brusewitz, G.
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Secondary author(s):
| Parker, A., Luke, D., Puhle, A.
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Document type:
| Conference abstract
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Number of reproductions:
| 2
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Reference:
| Brusewitz, G., Parker, A., Luke, D., & Puhle, A. (2015, July). An experimental study of physiological connectedness among twins in relation to attachment [PA]. Abstracts of Presented Papers 58th Annual Convention of the Parapsychological Association Joint with the 39th International Annual Convention of the Incorporated Society for Psychical Research (pp. 29-30). Greenwich University, United Kingdom.
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| Indexed document: | No
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| Keywords: | Twins / Telepathy / Connectedness / Synchronous reactions / Attachment
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An experimental study of physiological connectedness among twins in relation to attachment [PA] |