Investigating Scopesthesia: Attentional Transitions, Controls and Error Rates in Repeated Tests

Abstract

The sense of being stared at, or scopesthesia, was investigated experimentally with participants working in pairs.  Two participants were tested repeatedly and the effect of attentional transition was investigated.  In some tests, in the pre-trial period the starer stared at the staree, who was blindfolded, and in others the starer did not stare during the pre-trial period.  Their overall hit rate in these attentional transition tests was 52.8% (2,800 trials; p¼0.002), but there was no significant difference in hit rates between the two kinds of test.  Participants were given trial-by-trial feedback, so if there was any learning, there should have been a progressive increase in hit rates.  This did not happen.  The participants also took part in a control test in which there was no staring at all.  In these tests hit rates were at chance levels, indicating that other forms of ESP, such as telepathy and clairvoyance, could not account for the results in scopesthesia tests.  There were only 3 recording errors in 2,800 trials (0.1%), and two of these cancelled out, leaving a net error rate of 0.04%

Keywords: scopesthesia—sense of being stared at—attentional transitions— response bias—error rates—feedback