Andrew Parker

University of New England (Australia) | UNE · Department of Psychology

Two experiments investigated differences in short-term storage and processing capacity on the magnitude of eye-closure effects on episodic memory. Experiment 1 compared individuals with high (vs. low) forward and backward spans in the free-recall of words retrieved under both eyes closed and open conditions. Main effects of both forward and backwar...

This study investigated relationships between inter-class variations in paranormal experience and executive functions. A sample of 516 adults completed self-report measures assessing personal encounter-based paranormal occurrences (i.e., Experience, Practitioner Visiting, and Ability), executive functions (i.e., General Executive Function, Working...

This study examined whether scores on self-report measures of executive functions varied in accordance with level of self-professed paranormal ability. The investigators compared three groups varying in attribution of paranormal facilities: practitioners (Mediums, Psychics, Spiritualists and Fortune-Tellers), self-professed ability and no ability....

Two experiments examined the effects of directed (intentional) forgetting on information processed for its survival value. Experiment 1 used the list-method directed forgetting procedure in which items processed for their relevance to survival, moving house or pleasantness were followed by the cue to remember or forget. Following the encoding of a...

This study examined whether thinking style mediated relationships between belief in conspiracy and schizotypy facets. A UK‐based sample of 421 respondents completed the Generic Conspiracist Beliefs Scale (GCBS), Oxford‐Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences Short (O‐Life), and measures indexing preferential thinking style (proneness to rea...

This study used a modified White Christmas task to examine reports of electronic voice phenomena (EVP) within random noise. Following familiarization with the concept of EVP, 107 participants listened to an audio track combining white and pink noise. Instructions directed participants to press a keyboard button to indicate if they heard EVP. At the...

Previous research suggests a relationship between the Cognitive-Perceptual factor of schizotypy and belief in the paranormal (Hergovich et al. 2008). The current study explored this finding further using a boarder measure of paranormal belief (incorporating additional items on: Hauntings, Alien, and Other Life), alongside additional cognitive-perce...

Saccade-induced retrieval enhancement (SIRE) effects refer to the finding that memory can be enhanced when a short period of saccadic eye movements takes place prior to retrieval. Previous published work testifies to this eye movement advantage, but no work has yet examined if SIRE effects can be found when retrieval demands are high as a result of...

Saccade-induced retrieval enhancement (SIRE) effects refer to the finding that memory can be enhanced when a short period of saccadic eye movements takes place prior to retrieval. Previous published work testifies to this eye movement advantage, but no work has yet examined if SIRE effects can be found when retrieval demands are high as a result of...

The 18-item Mental Toughness Questionnaire (MTQ-18) is a brief, widely used measure of mental toughness. The MTQ-18 derives from the longer MTQ-48, which comprises four independent but correlated factors (Challenge, Commitment, Control and Confidence). Despite sampling items from across MTQ-48 dimensions, the MTQ-18 (as intended) provides a global,...

Two experiments examined the effects of survival processing and delay on true and related false recognition. Experiment 1 used the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm and found survival processing to increase true and related false recognition. Extending the delay from 5-mins to 1-day reduced true, but not false memory. Measures of the characteristic...

The Australian Sheep-Goat Scale (ASGS) is a commonly used measure of belief in the paranormal. The scale contains items that index extrasensory perception (ESP), psychokinesis (PK), and life after death (LAD). Although, research employs the ASGS as both a general (unidimensional) and factorial (multidimensional) measure, few studies have examined t...

Research has demonstrated that merely imagining an autobiographical event can bring about false memories for that event. One explanation for this is that imagination leads to the creation and incorporation of visual-imagistic information into the event representation. This idea was tested in two experiments in which visual-imagery processing was di...

The reality testing dimension of the Inventory of Personality Organization, the IPO-RT, has emerged as an important index of proneness to reality testing deficits. However, to date few studies have examined the factorial structure of the IPO-RT in isolation. This is an important and necessary development because studies use the IPO-RT as a discrete...

The effects of saccadic horizontal (bilateral) eye movements upon tests of both conceptual and perceptual forms of explicit and implicit memory were investigated. Participants studied a list of words and were then assigned to one of four test conditions: conceptual explicit, conceptual implicit, perceptual explicit, or perceptual implicit. Conceptu...

The effects of saccadic horizontal (bilateral) eye movements upon tests of both conceptual and perceptual forms of explicit and implicit memory were investigated. Participants studied a list of words and were then assigned to one of four test conditions: conceptual explicit, conceptual implicit, perceptual explicit, or perceptual implicit. Conceptu...

Major conspiracy theorists propose that problem–reaction–solution (PRS) functions as a mechanism for constructing and exaggerating social problems to garner populist support for the implementation (imposition) of laws that society would normally deem unacceptable. To evaluate this supposition, 248 participants recruited through convenience sampling...

This research demonstrates that higher levels of mental toughness provide cognitive-perceptual processing advantages when evaluating risk. No previous research, however, has examined mental toughness in relation to perception of risk and paranormal belief (a variable associated with distorted perception of causality and elevated levels of perceived...

This study assessed the extent to which within-individual variation in schizotypy and paranormal belief influenced performance on probabilistic reasoning tasks. A convenience sample of 725 non-clinical adults completed measures assessing schizotypy (Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experiences; O-Life brief), belief in the paranormal (Rev...

The effects of saccadic horizontal (bilateral) eye movements upon tests of both conceptual and perceptual forms of explicit and implicit memory were investigated. Participants studied a list of words and were then assigned to one of four test conditions: conceptual explicit, conceptual implicit, perceptual explicit, or perceptual implicit. Conceptu...

The present study assessed the degree to which probabilistic reasoning performance and thinking style influenced perception of risk and self-reported levels of terrorism-related behavior change. A sample of 263 respondents, recruited via convenience sampling, completed a series of measures comprising probabilistic reasoning tasks (perception of ran...

Two experiments investigated the effects of product–attribute associations on false consumer memory. In both experiments, subjects were presented with sets of related product attributes under incidental encoding conditions. Later, recognition memory was tested with studied attributes, non-studied but associated attributes (critical lures) and non-s...

Since its introduction, the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS) has developed into a principal measure of belief in the paranormal. Accordingly, the RPBS regularly appears within parapsychological research. Despite common usage, academic debates continue to focus on the factorial structure of the RPBS and its psychometric integrity. Using an agg...

Recent research suggests that unconventional beliefs are locatable within a generic anomalous belief category. This notion derives from the observation that apparently dissimilar beliefs share fundamental, core characteristics (i.e., contradiction of orthodox scientific understanding of the universe and defiance of conventional understanding of rea...

Previous research proposes that endorsement of anomalous beliefs is associated with proneness to conjunction error. This supposition ignores important differences between belief types. Correspondingly, the present study examined the degree to which components of statistical bias predicted conspiratorial ideation and belief in the paranormal. Confir...

High levels of false recognition for non-presented items typically occur following exposure to lists of associated words. These false recognition effects can be reduced by making the studied items more distinctive by the presentation of pictures during encoding. One explanation of this is that during recognition, participants expect or attempt to r...

Relatively few studies have investigated the nature and incidence of paranormal experience. Extending the work of Castro et al. (2014), this study investigated the prevalence of subjective paranormal experiences (SPEs) and examined relationships between SPEs and anomalous beliefs (paranormal, urban legends and conspiracism). The sample comprised 12...

The present paper examined relationships between schizotypy (measured by the Oxford-Liverpool Inventory of Feelings and Experience; O-LIFE scale brief), belief in the paranormal (assessed via the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale; RPBS) and proneness to statistical bias (i.e., perception of randomness and susceptibility to conjunction fallacy). Parti...

Studies exploring relationships between belief in the paranormal and vulnerability to cognitive bias suggest that believers are liable to misperception of chance and conjunction fallacy. Research investigating misperception of chance has produced consistent findings, whilst work on conjunction fallacy is less compelling. Evidence indicates also tha...

This paper assessed whether belief in conspiracy theories was associated with a particularly cognitive style (worldview). The sample comprised 223 volunteers recruited via convenience sampling and included undergraduates, postgraduates, university employees, and alumni. Respondents completed measures assessing a range of cognitive-perceptual factor...

The present study examined the degree to which specific probabilistic biases (misperception of chance and conjunction fallacy) were associated with belief in the paranormal and proneness to reality testing (RT) deficits. Participants completed measures assessing probabilistic reasoning, belief in the paranormal and RT. Perception of randomness pred...

Performing a sequence of fast saccadic horizontal eye movements has been shown to facilitate performance on a range of cognitive tasks, including the retrieval of episodic memories. One explanation for these effects is based on the hypothesis that saccadic eye movements increase hemispheric interaction, and that such interactions are important for...

The effects of saccadic bilateral (horizontal) eye movements on true and false memory in adults and children were investigated. Both adults and children encoded lists of associated words in the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm followed by a test of recognition memory. Just prior to retrieval, participants were asked to engage in 30s of bilateral v...

The combined effects of encoding tasks and divided attention upon category-exemplar generation and category-cued recall were examined. Participants were presented with pairs of words each comprising a category name and potential example of that category. They were then asked to indicate either (i) their liking for both of the words or (ii) if the e...

Autobiographical memory refers to memory for personal life events, experiences and personal knowledge. Recent research has found that saccadic bilateral eye movements (rapidly moving ones eyes from side to side) can improve the recall of personal memories. In particular, bilateral eye movements can (i) aid the retrieval of the earliest autobiograph...

Background and Method:  Using the misinformation effect the present study (Phase II) examined the relationship between paranormal belief, cognitive-perceptual personality factors (delusional ideation, schizotypy, transliminality), recognition memory (true memory, hits; false memory, misinformation and unrelated) and remember/know/guess responses....

Background and Method:  Using the misinformation effect the present study (Phase II) examined the relationship between paranormal belief, cognitive-perceptual personality factors (delusional ideation, schizotypy, transliminality), recognition memory (true memory, hits; false memory, misinformation and unrelated) and remember/know/guess responses....

Two experiments are presented that investigate the effects of dynamic visual noise (DVN) on memory for concrete and abstract words. Memory for concrete words is typically superior to that of abstract words and is referred to as the concreteness effect. DVN is a procedure that has been demonstrated to interfere selectively with visual working memory...

In nonclinical populations psychosis-like experiences have been extensively studied under the psychometric rubric of schizotypy (psychosis-proneness). This study aims to assess the extent of schizotypal traits and associated personality correlates displayed within a quota sample stratified by gender and age, the emphasis being upon anomalous experi...

The current study evaluated the psychometric properties of Wiseman and Watt's (2004) negative and positive superstitious belief items. The original items were compared with a modified, reworded set of items which emphasized each item's relation with either good or bad luck, and standard psychometric analyses were done. Modifying the items did not i...

Two experiments are reported that investigate the effects of retrieval practice on explicit and implicit memory for brand names. In Experiment 1, participants were exposed to a set of brand names pertaining to a range of product categories. Following this, participants practiced retrieving a subset of the brands before taking an explicit or implici...

The current study explores Wilson and French's (2006) finding that believers in the paranormal are more susceptible to false memories than non-believers. Seventy participants completed a News Coverage Questionnaire concerning personal memories about first seeing dramatic news events. The events included four news items that are known to have been c...

This study investigated the relationships between cognitive-perceptual personality dimensions (transliminality and delusional ideation) and self-report measures of memory error (Oblivion Scale and the Prospective and Retrospective Memory Questionnaire). 100 full- and part-time psychology undergraduate students completed the measures (18 men and 82...

The Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (R-PBS) (Tobacyk & Milford, 1983; Tobacyk, 1988) is currently the most widely used measure of paranormal belief. Despite this the content and structure of the R-PBS has been frequently criticised and the legitimacy of the scale as a satisfactory measure of paranormal belief has been questioned. Consequently, the...

Two experiments are reported that investigate the effects of saccadic bilateral eye movements on the retrieval of item, associative, and contextual information. Experiment 1 compared the effects of bilateral versus vertical versus no eye movements on tests of item recognition, followed by remember-know responses and associative recognition. Support...

Three experiments were conducted to investigate whether part-set cuing effects generalize to an educational style learning and assessment task. Mnemonic performance was assessed in terms of overall recall, item gain (reminiscence) and item loss (forgetting). In Study 1 we found that negative part-set cuing effects extended to the recall of general...

Part-set cuing has frequently been found to inhibit the recall of previously learned information; see Nickerson's 1984 work. This study investigated whether negative part-set cuing effects extend to the disruption of reminiscence, the production of new items, on a delayed second recall trial. 64 psychology students from local Further Education coll...

This paper examined whether belief in the paranormal is linked to a general weakness in probabilistic reasoning, or whether belief in the paranormal is directly linked to the perception of randomness (misrepresentation of chance). Previous research investigating probabilistic reasoning errors and belief in the paranormal has assessed errors only on...

This study investigated Wiseman and Watt’s (2004) finding that negative and positive superstitious beliefs were underpinned by different psychological mechanisms. 321 participants completed a self-report measure of neuroticism, the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale(R-PBS), negative and positive superstition scales, and the Positive and Negative Affec...

The effect of retrieval practice on memory for brand attributes was examined. Participants were presented with advertisements for fictional products so each contained a number of brand attributes relating to the nature of the product and its qualities. Following this, participants practiced recalling a subset of those attributes either 3 or 6 times...

This experiment investigated whether the exchange of information in social recall situations produced an inhibitory effect comparable to that observed in part-set cuing studies. 112 participants solved anagrams either individually or with a partner, then after a brief interference task recalled the words alone. Following delay participants attempte...

Previous research has found environmental context effects for both conceptual explicit and conceptual implicit memory (Parker, Gellatly, & Waterman, 1999). The research presented here challenges these findings on methodological grounds. Experiment 1 assessed the effects of context change on category-exemplar generation (conceptual implicit memory t...

The effects of saccadic bilateral (horizontal) eye movements on gist based false recognition was investigated. Following exposure to lists of words related to a critical but non-studied word participants were asked to engage in 30s of bilateral vs. vertical vs. no eye movements. Subsequent testing of recognition memory revealed that those who under...

A typical midgame chess position was presented to participants for 30 sec. Participants then reconstructed the presented position on a second board from memory. Following a brief distraction phase, participants were asked to reconstruct the position a second time with 0, 6, or 12 of the original pieces present. It was hypothesized that cue presenta...