Motivated by a series of reported experiments and their controversial results, the present work investigated if volunteers could causally affect an optical double-slit system by mental efforts alone. The participants' task in the experimental sessions alternated between intending an increase in the (real-time feedback-informed) amount of light diffracted through a specific single slit versus relaxing their intentional effort. In total, 240 sessions contributed by 171 volunteers were recorded. The first 160 sessions were collected in an exploratory mode, and those data revealed statistically significant differences between the intention and relax conditions. The analysis method and variables of interest derived from the exploratory sessions were then pre-registered for the subsequent 80 formal sessions. The formal experiments, based on a directional hypothesis, were not statistically significant. A post hoc meta-analysis based on a bi-directional hypothesis, and applied to the same data, resulted in a 2.75 sigma outcome ($p=6.02\times10^{-3}; \, es=0.31 \pm 0.22$ 95\% CI). Directional and bi-directional analyses applied to an equal number of control sessions, all conducted without observers present, resulted in uniformly non-significant outcomes. Analysis of environmental factors did not reveal any artifactual sources that might have produced the significant bi-directional effect. While the pre-registered analysis did not support the existence of the investigated phenomenon, the post hoc findings warrant further investigation to formally test the bi-directional hypothesis.
Motivated by a series of reported experiments and their controversial results, the present work investigated if volunteers could causally affect an optical double-slit system by mental efforts alone. The participants' task in the experimental sessions alternated between intending an increase in the (real-time feedback-informed) amount of light diffracted through a specific single slit versus relaxing their intentional effort. In total, 240 sessions contributed by 171 volunteers were recorded. The first 160 sessions were collected in an exploratory mode, and those data revealed statistically significant differences between the intention and relax conditions. The analysis method and variables of interest derived from the exploratory sessions were then pre-registered for the subsequent 80 formal sessions. The formal experiments, based on a directional hypothesis, were not statistically significant. A post hoc meta-analysis based on a bi-directional hypothesis, and applied to the same data, resulted in a 2.75 sigma outcome (p=6.02×10−3;es=0.31±0.22 95% CI). Directional and bi-directional analyses applied to an equal number of control sessions, all conducted without observers present, resulted in uniformly non-significant outcomes. Analysis of environmental factors did not reveal any artifactual sources that might have produced the significant bi-directional effect. While the pre-registered analysis did not support the existence of the investigated phenomenon, the post hoc findings warrant further investigation to formally test the bi-directional hypothesis.
Motivated by a series of reported experiments and their controversial results, the present work investigated if volunteers could causally affect an optical double-slit system through mental efforts alone. The participants' task alternated between intending the increase of the (real-time feedback informed) amount of light diffracted through a specific single slit and relaxing any intention effort. The 160 data sessions that 127 volunteers took part in revealed a statistically significant 4.68 sigma difference between the measurements performed in the intention versus the relax conditions (p=2.93×10−6;es=0.47±0.20 95\% CL), while the 160 control sessions conducted without any observers present resulted in statistically equivalent samples (z=0.35,p=0.73;es=0.04±0.20 95\% CL). The results could not be explained by environmental factors, hence supporting the previously claimed existence of a not yet understood form of interaction between a conscious agent and a physical system.
Objective: A two-year online experiment tested the hypothesis that focused human attention alternatively directed toward or away from a double-slit optical system would affect the interference pattern in a predictable, unidirectional fashion. A control condition was employed by having a web server periodically simulate a human observer. Method: Based on the results of an independent reanalysis of these data and the outcome of an independent conceptual replication, we revisited the original directional hypothesis to explore the possibility that mind-wandering and other distractions might have caused attention or intention to unpredictably fluctuate. That in turn might have caused the hypothesized psychophysical influence to be more readily detected as a bidirectional effect (i.e., a shift in variance) rather than as unidirectional effect (a shift in mean). To test this idea, we developed a variance-based analysis using data collected during the first year of the experiment and applied it to data from the second year. Results: The first year’s data showed that experimental sessions conducted by humans resulted in significant variance differences as compared to control sessions conducted by a computer, z = 4.16, p = .00002. The same analysis applied to the second year’s data resulted in z = 3.14, p = .0008. Examination of environmental and apparatus variables indicated that those factors were not responsible for the observed changes in variance. Conclusion: The results suggest that a variance analysis may be more sensitive to psychophysical effects in this type of experiment.
An experiment we conducted from 2012 to 2013, which had not been previously reported, was designed to explore possible psychophysical effects resulting from the interaction of a human mind with a quantum system. Participants focused their attention toward or away from the slits in a double-slit optical system to see if the interference pattern would be affected. Data were collected from 25 people in individual half-hour sessions; each person repeated the test ten times for a total of 250 planned sessions. “Sham” sessions designed to mimic the experimental sessions without observers present were run immediately before and after as controls. Based on the planned analysis, no evidence for a psychophysical effect was found. Because this experiment differed in two essential ways from similar, previously reported double-slit experiments, two exploratory analyses were developed, one based on a simple spectral analysis of the interference pattern and the other based on fringe visibility. For the experimental data, the outcome supported a pattern of results predicted by a causal psychophysical effect, with the spectral metric resulting in a 3.4 sigma effect (p = 0.0003), and the fringe visibility metric resulting in 7 of 22 fringes tested above 2.3 sigma after adjustment for type I error inflation, with one of those fringes at 4.3 sigma above chance (p = 0.00001). The same analyses applied to the sham data showed uniformly null outcomes. Other analyses exploring the potential that these results were due to mundane artifacts, such as fluctuations in temperature or vibration, showed no evidence of such influences. Future studies using the same protocols and analytical methods will be required to determine if these exploratory results are idiosyncratic or reflect a genuine psychophysical influence.
The consciousness-collapse interpretation of quantum mechanics was explored by testing if human observation might act like a weak quantum measurement effect in an optical interferometer. Forty-seven participants selected via a worldwide search for individuals with experience in focusing their attention were each provided with a custom-made optical apparatus. Using this device, they ran a preassigned series of test sessions to see if illumination recorded in a portion of the interference pattern would be affected when a feedback signal based on that measure was observed versus unobserved. Another portion of the interference pattern was recorded simultaneously but never observed to provide control data. Environmental sensors and real-time encryption of the illumination data were among the methods included in the design of the experiment to help ensure data integrity.With all data combined the results did not support three preregistered hypotheses, but for one of those hypotheses participants partitioned by those experienced in an outward vs. an inward focus of attention achieved significantly better results in reducing interference (p = 0.008). An exploratory hypothesis also found a significant difference in skewness of the distribution of interference measures recorded in observed vs. unobserved periods (p = 0.004). In addition, an exploratory analysis showed a clear trend – a progressive decline in interference – while participants observed a portion of the interference pattern, as compared to data recorded simultaneously from an unobserved portion (p = 5.9 × 10-14). By comparison, applying the same analysis during no-observation periods found no differences in trends (p = 0.77). Control data run with no observers present and subjected again to this same trend analysis showed uniformly nonsignificant results. Alternative explanations, including possible environmental influences that might have caused these outcomes, as well as recommendations for future studies, are discussed.
An experiment was conducted to explore possible psychophysical influences on interference patterns generated by an optical double-slit system. The experiment was motivated by a proposed explanation of the quantum measurement problem by John von Neumann and others, namely that consciousness collapses the quantum wavefunction. The study design generated a single database partitioned into eight differential tests, four in experimental conditions where participants alternately directed their attention toward and away from the optical system, and four in sham conditions when no one was present. The planned analysis was comparison of means in attention-toward vs. attention-away conditions; a secondary analysis added later, but before the data were examined, was comparison of variances. After adjusting the eight mean comparisons for multiple testing, none were statistically significant, but one of the eight variance differences was suggestively significant.To date, 11 of 28 conceptual replications of this experiment, reported by four independent teams, have reported statistically significant outcomes (p < 0.05, two-tail), where only one would be expected by chance. Given the implications of psychophysical effects on our understanding of the role of consciousness in the physical world, we encourage others to attempt to replicate this experiment.
Previously reported experiments suggested that interference patterns generated by a double-slit optical system were perturbed by a psychophysical (i.e., mind-matter) interaction. Three new experiments were conducted to further investigate this phenomenon. The first study con- sisted of 50 half-hour test sessions where participants concentrated their attention-toward or -away from a double-slit system located 3 m away. The spectral magnitude and phase associated with the double-slit component of the interference pattern were compared between the two attention condi- tions, and the combined results provided evidence for an interaction (effect size ¼� 0.73 6 0.14, p ¼ 2.4 � 10 � 7 ). One hundred control sessions using the same equipment, protocol and analysis, but without participants present, showed no effect (effect size ¼ 0.04 6 0.10, p ¼ 0.71). A Fraunhofer diffraction model was used to explore various interpretations of this outcome. This analysis suggested that the distribution of light between the two slits and the horizontal stability of the laser beam were the principle components of the optical system that were perturbed. The sec- ond experiment used a duplicate double-slit system and similar test protocol, but it was conducted over the Internet by streaming data to participants' web browsers. Some 685 people from six conti- nents contributed 2089 experimental sessions. Results were similar to those observed in the first experiment, but smaller in magnitude (effect size ¼� 0.09 6 0.02, p ¼ 2.6 � 10 � 6 ). Data from 2303 control sessions, conducted automatically every 2 h using the same equipment but without observ- ers showed no effect (effect size ¼� 0.01 6 0.02, p ¼ 0.61). Distance between participants and the optical system, ranging from 1 km to 18,000 km, showed no correlation with experimental effect size. The third experiment used a newly designed double-slit system, a revised test protocol, and a simpler method of statistical analysis. Twenty sessions contributed by 10 participants successfully replicated the interaction effect observed in the first two studies (effect size ¼� 0.62 6 0.22, p ¼ 0.006). V C 2013 Physics Essays Publication .( http://dx.doi.org/10.4006/0836-1398-26.4.553) Resume´: Des experiences realisees precedemment suggerent que des franges d'interferences generees par un systeme de double fente optique peuvent etre perturbees par des interactions psycho-physiques (c'est-a `-dire des interactions entre conscience et matiere). Trois nouvelles expe ´- riences ont emenees pour etudier ce phenomene. Dans la premiere e au cours de 50 seances d'une demi heure chacune, des participants ont concentreleurs attentions soit pour influencer un systeme de double fente situee a` 3 m de distance, soit pour ignorer ce meme systeme. L'ampleur et la phase spectrale associee aux franges d'interference ont ecompares entre les deux conditions de focalisation de l'attention, et les resultats combines sont compatibles avec l'hypothese d'une inter- action entre conscience et matiere (taille d'effet ¼� 0.73 6 0.14, p ¼ 2.4 � 10 � 7 ). De plus, l'effet n'est pas present quand la meme analyse est effectuee sur cents sessions controles utilisant le meme equipement et le meme protocole, mais fonctionnant en l'absence de participants (taille d'effet ¼ 0.04 6 0.10, p ¼ 0.71). Un modele de diffraction de Fraunhofer utilisepour explorer dif- ferentes interpretations de ce resultat suggere que la distribution de la lumiere entre les deux fentes et la stabilitehorizontale du faisceau laser sont les principaux composants du systeme optique qui ont eperturbes. La seconde experience utilise un systeme de double fente et un protocole de test similaire, mais elle a etemenee sur Internet en envoyant en temps reel les donnees du systeme de double fente aux navigateurs Web des participants. 685 personnes provenant de six continents ont contribue ´ 2089 sessions experimentales. Les resultats sont similaires ala premiere experience mais la taille d'effet est de plus faible amplitude (taille d'effet ¼� 0.09 6 0.02, p ¼ 2.6 � 10 � 6 ). Les don- nees de 2303 sessions de controle, realiseautomatiquement toutes les deux heures en utilisant le meme e mais sans observateurs n'ont montreaucun effet (taille d'effet ¼� 0.01 6 0.02, p ¼ 0.61). La distance entre les participants et le systeme optique, qui va de 1 km a ` 18,000 km, n'est pas correlee avec la taille de l'effet experimental. La troisieme experience utilise un systeme