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Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia

Jess Williams, Mark Blagrove Orcid Logo

PLOS ONE, Volume: 17, Issue: 9, Start page: e0274595

Swansea University Authors: Jess Williams, Mark Blagrove Orcid Logo

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Abstract

This investigation tested the effect of priming on pareidolia (the hearing of illusory words in ambiguous stimuli). Participants (41 women, 20 men, mean age 29.95 years) were assigned to primed (n = 30) or unprimed (n = 31) groups: the former were told the study was of ‘purported ghosts voices’, the...

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Published in: PLOS ONE
ISSN: 1932-6203
Published: Public Library of Science (PLoS) 2022
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spelling v2 61234 2022-09-15 Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia 03415d4e006da3286f4bd0a26db83d84 Jess Williams Jess Williams true false 8c78ee008e650b9f0a463bae56a5636c 0000-0002-9854-1854 Mark Blagrove Mark Blagrove true false 2022-09-15 FGMHL This investigation tested the effect of priming on pareidolia (the hearing of illusory words in ambiguous stimuli). Participants (41 women, 20 men, mean age 29.95 years) were assigned to primed (n = 30) or unprimed (n = 31) groups: the former were told the study was of ‘purported ghosts voices’, the latter ‘voices in noisy environments.’ Participants were assessed for perception of human voices within recordings of purported electronic voice phenomena (EVP), degraded human speech, normal human speech, and white noise. The primed group had significantly higher perception of voices within EVPs than in degraded speech, this difference was not found for unprimed participants. In contrast to the previous use of this design, the primed group did not have higher perception of voices in EVPs and degraded speech than did the unprimed group. The Aesthetic Sensitivity dimension of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) was associated with detection of degraded stimuli, but not with accuracy of stimulus identification. HSPS score was related to lifetime reporting of anomalous and paranormal experiences. This study partially replicates a paranormal priming effect and shows relationships between HSPS and detection of ambiguous stimuli and anomalous and paranormal experiences. Journal Article PLOS ONE 17 9 e0274595 Public Library of Science (PLoS) 1932-6203 14 9 2022 2022-09-14 10.1371/journal.pone.0274595 COLLEGE NANME Medicine, Health and Life Science - Faculty COLLEGE CODE FGMHL Swansea University SU Library paid the OA fee (TA Institutional Deal) The authors received no specific funding for this work. Swansea University 2024-02-02T08:38:57.5081455 2022-09-15T19:50:52.5233889 Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences School of Psychology Jess Williams 1 Mark Blagrove 0000-0002-9854-1854 2 61234__25145__0e425214d3cd4a4999d26f84bffe3fa1.pdf Williams and Blagrove 2022 PLOS.pdf 2022-09-15T19:57:16.2949140 Output 915160 application/pdf Version of Record true © 2022 Williams, Blagrove. This is an open access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License true eng http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/
title Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia
spellingShingle Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia
Jess Williams
Mark Blagrove
title_short Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia
title_full Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia
title_fullStr Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia
title_full_unstemmed Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia
title_sort Paranormal experiences, sensory-processing sensitivity, and the priming of pareidolia
author_id_str_mv 03415d4e006da3286f4bd0a26db83d84
8c78ee008e650b9f0a463bae56a5636c
author_id_fullname_str_mv 03415d4e006da3286f4bd0a26db83d84_***_Jess Williams
8c78ee008e650b9f0a463bae56a5636c_***_Mark Blagrove
author Jess Williams
Mark Blagrove
author2 Jess Williams
Mark Blagrove
format Journal article
container_title PLOS ONE
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container_issue 9
container_start_page e0274595
publishDate 2022
institution Swansea University
issn 1932-6203
doi_str_mv 10.1371/journal.pone.0274595
publisher Public Library of Science (PLoS)
college_str Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
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hierarchy_top_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_top_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
hierarchy_parent_id facultyofmedicinehealthandlifesciences
hierarchy_parent_title Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences
department_str School of Psychology{{{_:::_}}}Faculty of Medicine, Health and Life Sciences{{{_:::_}}}School of Psychology
document_store_str 1
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description This investigation tested the effect of priming on pareidolia (the hearing of illusory words in ambiguous stimuli). Participants (41 women, 20 men, mean age 29.95 years) were assigned to primed (n = 30) or unprimed (n = 31) groups: the former were told the study was of ‘purported ghosts voices’, the latter ‘voices in noisy environments.’ Participants were assessed for perception of human voices within recordings of purported electronic voice phenomena (EVP), degraded human speech, normal human speech, and white noise. The primed group had significantly higher perception of voices within EVPs than in degraded speech, this difference was not found for unprimed participants. In contrast to the previous use of this design, the primed group did not have higher perception of voices in EVPs and degraded speech than did the unprimed group. The Aesthetic Sensitivity dimension of the Highly Sensitive Person Scale (HSPS) was associated with detection of degraded stimuli, but not with accuracy of stimulus identification. HSPS score was related to lifetime reporting of anomalous and paranormal experiences. This study partially replicates a paranormal priming effect and shows relationships between HSPS and detection of ambiguous stimuli and anomalous and paranormal experiences.
published_date 2022-09-14T08:38:56Z
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