Zener Cards - testing ability

6th

Just wondering if anyone here had tried out the likes of Zener cards?

Its a set of 5 different symbols on cards with 5 of each card. The chances of any one card being on top of the deck is 20% so anything consisitantly over 20% could possibly be showing some sort of ESP.

I'm gonna either make up a set (very easy) or buy a nice set to try it out.

Zener cards on Wiki

stevenmu

I've tried the online ones a few times (I'll try and dig out some links later but google turns up loads anyway). Some times I'd do quite well on them, others I'd get results in line with the odds, and occasionally I'd get results far below what the odds would predict Largely it seemed to depend on my mood and how hard I tried. The more relaxed I am and the less effort I put it, the better I do.

Also, there's nothing particularly 'special' about zenner cards. From what I remember of them they were created by Carl Zenner, a psychologist who chose the symbols as being distinctive images that people would be unlikely to confuse. Some people find it more effective to use cards with images of real world objects or colours or stuff.

6th

I havent tried the online versins though I found loads when i looked it up. I like the symbols as as you said they are distinctive enough not to cause confusion and dont always for people saying "well i said a cow ... but a bar of milk chocolate is close enough".

kshiel

I tried a couple of test online by "Tickle". They did tests on all aspects of your ability. Got 92% on remote viewing but they also did test where you would be shown blank cards with a list of either words or symbols or numbers and you would choose got on average about 3 out of 4 right. Dont know how accurate they are as chance can play a big part in it as well. Maybe just in good form that day or just luckly. Good fun to try it. Truth it made me curious to what other sites out there which lead to this one.

6th

Ok am digging this thread out and popping on a link:

The Zener cards were used in forced choice experiments - ones in which the participant chose the target from a set of known possible targets.Originally used by Rhine and his colleagues, they consist of five simple symbols: star, circle. square, cross a nd wavy lines. The cards were shuffled, originally by hand but later by machine, and the participant then attempted to determine the order of the cards through the use of psi. In a telepathy protocol, the cards were viewed by a remote person (the sender) who attempted to 'transmit' the information to the participant. In a clairvoyance (also called general ESP, or GESP) protocol, the cards were not viewed by anyone prior to the participant's psi attempt.

In this experiment, the protocol is a clairvoyant one. When you are ready, the computer will select 25 cards at random, each of which will show one of the five Zener symbols. There are no limits to how often each symbol can be selected (i.e. the pack of cards from which the computer makes its selection is limitless!). Your task is to use psi to determine which cards have been selected. On the next screen, you will see 25 sets of 5 Zener cards. You should choose one from each set. Do this by clicking on each desired card. When you have chosen from each of the 25 sets, click on the button at the bottom of the page and you will be given your results. Please avoid pressing the 'back' button. Note that the results from this are not part of a formal series and are here only for demonstration purposes.

Link to online test: http://moebius.psy.ed.ac.uk/~paul/cgi-bin/zener.cgi

kshiel

Quite fun, did really really bad on that one though.

6th

I did ok got 6 the first time and have gotten 7 the last 2 times ... still I'm not exactly "in the zone" .... its monday morning!

kshiel

Well I wasn't really in the zone myself more or less just ran through them , but will try it later with a little more concentration.

monkeyfudge

eeek.... I didn't get any of them... That's actually got to be pretty special seeing as pure chance means you should get about 5 of them right.

6th

Actually that is weird I've never seen anybody get none right .... i think sowhere I read said that sometimes people score as low as 8% - which is 2.

monkeyfudge

damn... I should have taken a screen grab... it was impressive looking with all those red x's.

kshiel

I am doing terrible at that test. Heres a couple of different ones, cannot remember if you need to sign up for it or not?

http://www.geocities.com/anunlikeworld/paratests.html

Oryx

monkeyfudge wrote:

eeek.... I didn't get any of them... That's actually got to be pretty special seeing as pure chance means you should get about 5 of them right.

Dont ask me to link this to anything, but I have heard that that is psychic ability showing itself 'in reverse' if you like. As if the ability is working but giving you the opposite result to that which you were trying to achieve. I cant explain it well, but I have heard of it before.

...or it could just be chance.;)