Rense LangeUniversity of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign | UIUC · Psychology, Computer Science
Rense Lange
Doctor of Philosophy
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77
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Introduction
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January 2000 - December 2007
Education
September 1977 - May 1986
August 1969 - August 1976
Publications
Publications (77)
Previous survey evidence suggests that situational-enchantment is a mental state conducive for psi-related experiences. In this conceptual replication and exploration, we used a preregistered research design to examine hit rate on a mobile application ('app') test of putative psi that was administered after participant exposure to two competing con...
Studies of the mediating factors of imaginary companions (ICs) in children and adults are well-represented in the literature. However, the nature and structure of behavioral expressions in IC characters have been less formally scrutinized. We examined these issues in a convenience sample of 389 adults. Of these, 155 self-reported childhood ICs and...
We conducted two preliminary studies to test the hypothesis that 'haunted, sacred, or enchanted' spaces are characterized by certain environmental Gestalt variables that define their space syntax or architectural phenomenology and thus help to consciously or non-consciously shape people's associated impressions or perceptions. Study 1 involved the...
A total of 231 adult tourists, almost exclusively from European countries, filled out an established enchantment adjective checklist upon completion of their ride on the historic city of Porto's “Magic Train”, which is intended as practical transportation to the city's historical sites, shopping areas, the wine cellars, and important buildings. Usi...
The ‘Valentine’s Day Blues’ is an enduring concept rooted in pop psychology that has unfortunately received little empirical attention. On this point, it is commonly assumed that the increasing commodification of romance plus the social trappings of Valentine’s Day can elicit stresses similar to those evoked by traditional holidays. Thus, women’s g...
In healthy individuals, investigations of cognitive processes and factors underlying mirror self-consciousness are compelling. Under a low level of face illumination, mirror- and eye-gazing protocols reliably induce anomalous self-experiences in healthy individuals, although the dimensionality of such perceptions has been debated in terms of three...
We examined the state of “enchantment” as a consumer motivator, especially in the context of social and travel restrictions during COVID-19. An online purposive sample ( n = 104) provided narrative data and ratings of past experiences versus future expectations of enchantment. Linguistic cluster analysis revealed five categories of these experience...
Situational-enchantment is a hypothesized arousal state encompassing a potent sense of connection or oneness with a “transcendent power or ultimate reality.” Qualitative research previously suggested that this individual difference involves dissonance around ideations with competing “Emotional, Sensorial, Timeless, Rational, and Transformative” the...
Research suggests a Haunted People Syndrome (HP-S) is defined by the recurrent perception of anomalous subjective and objective events. Occurrences are traditionally attributed to supernatural agencies, but we argue that such interpretations have morphed into themes of “surveillance and stalking” in group-stalking reports. We tested a series of rel...
Using a sample of self-reported “spontaneous” accounts (ostensibly sincere and unprimed, N = 426), we calibrated a 32-item, Rasch-based “Survey of Strange Events (SSE)” to quantify the phenomenology of ghostly episodes while assessing response biases related to experients’ age and gender. This inventory included psychological experiences typical of...
We review conceptualizations and measurements of base (or core) experiences commonly attributed to haunts and poltergeists (i.e., “ghostly episodes”). Case analyses, surveys, controlled experiments, and field studies have attempted to gauge anomalous experiences in this domain, albeit with methods that do not cumulatively build on earlier research....
Research on the psychology of paranormal, religious, and delusional belief has been stifled by a lack of careful distinction between anomalous experiences and their corresponding attributions. The Survey of Anomalous Experience (SAE; Irwin, Dagnall, & Drinkwater, 2013) addresses this nuance by measuring proneness to anomalous experience (PAE) and p...
We examined construct and discriminant validities of the Revised Transliminality Scale (RTS) using a large sample (n = 577) of undergraduates who completed the RTS along with established measures of mystical experiences, schizotypy, dissociation, absorption, various phenomenological aspects of consciousness, positive and negative affect, anxiety, m...
To facilitate continued research on the transliminality construct, we revisited Lange, Thalbourne, Houran, and Storm’s (2000) Revised Transliminality Scale (RTS) to examine its conceptual foundations and validity. Keyword searches in several academic databases revealed many multidisciplinary studies that collectively align with the idea that transl...
Based on a review and meta-analyses of empirical literature in parapsychology, Mossbridge and Radin (2018) argued for anomalous replicable effects that suggest the possibility of precognitive ability or retrocausal phenomena. However, these conclusions are refuted on statistical and theoretical grounds—the touted effects are neither meaningful, int...
This paper illustrates how Rasch measurement can be applied to consciousness research and psychological and medical research in general, and more generally, by highlighting the qualitative and the quantitative information provided by this approach by means of graphs. Rasch models specify the conditions under which measurement can occur—they are inh...
Individuals’ eagerness or desire to get married was investigated in a sample of online daters in China (n = 3,389) using a 6-item version of the Drive to Marry (DTM) Scale, which was modified with new questions about normative pressures to marry given the cultural emphasis on social prescription in Eastern versus Western culture. The questionnaire...
An extension of concurrent validity is proposed that uses qualitative data for the purpose of validating quantitative measures. The approach relies on Latent Semantic Analysis (LSA) which places verbal (written) statements in a high dimensional semantic space. Using data from a medical / psychiatric domain as a case study – Near Death Experiences,...
Latent semantic analysis—a technique to quantify qualitative data—was used on a large dataset of near death experience (NDE) accounts for which a sizable portion also had scores on Greyson’s NDE Scale. Given previous research with the NDE Scale showing there is a “core NDE” comprised of a probabilistic hierarchy of cognitive, affective, transcenden...
Documented differences exist between Eastern and Western attitudes and beliefs about romantic relationships, but some authorities argue that dyadic relationship values are becoming increasingly Westernized. Accordingly, we surveyed current beliefs structures in a large sample (n = 11,300) of male and female subscribers to a major matchmaking site i...
We explored the idea that the timing of executives’ career moves was consistent with Bak’s notion of self-organized criticality. Consistent with predictions, time series analysis of job changes for 43 hospitality executives obeyed a power law and revealed a mixture of predictable and unpredictable patterns with a musical nature (pink noise distribu...
Intuition has received increasing attention and study as a component of managerial decision-making. The conceptualization of intuition as a nonsequential information processing mode, which comprises both cognitive and affective elements and results in direct knowing without any use of conscious reasoning, strongly suggests that transliminal process...
Singles often use compatibility tests of unknown validity to minimize the limitations of hyperpersonal communication inherent to online interactions. Thus, we conducted an online study to test a new matching system called MatchMatrix, which operates as an oracle in predicting friendship and lovers compatibility based on an analysis of birth dates....
Selection assessments are common practice to help reduce employee turnover in the service industry, but as too little is known about employees' characteristics, which are valued most highly by human resources professionals, a sample of 108 managers and human resources professionals rated the perceived importance of 31 performance traits for Line, M...
Past research on Computer Adaptive Testing (CAT) has focused almost exclusively on the use of binary items and minimizing the number of items to be administrated. To address this situation, extensive computer simulations were performed using partial credit items with two, three, four, and five response categories. Other variables manipulated includ...
Introduction Color is an important aspect of our efforts to create personal spaces to our own liking. More-over, color choices can have important social consequences as our choices are part of our presentation to others, and thus these choices may influence how others perceive us. Yet, little is known about why people like or dislike the colors the...
Based on the data from 778 respondents, it was shown that mystical experiences as addressed by Thalbourne's (1991)28.
Thalbourne , M. A. 1991. The psychology of mystical experience. Exceptional Human Experience, 9: 168–186. View all references Mystical Experiences Scale are Rasch scalable, and an unbiased set of 19 items was identified that yields...
Following the framework found in Oliva et al. 1987, GEMCAT II implements a felxible method to test catastrophe models containing multivariate (i.e., latent) variables while allowing for a prioi variable specifications. The system uses an efficient hybrid minimization algorithm combining the Downhill Simplex and Powell's Conjugate Gradient method. G...
Compatibility tests are the foundation of many online matchmaking services, but psychometric support for their use is ambiguous or unavailable. This paper summarizes the unprecedented application of Rasch scaling to assess the structure and validity of an online proprietary compatibility test, termed the TRUE Compatibility Test (TCT). Contrary to p...
For those with true near-death experiences (NDEs), Greyson's (1983, 1990) NDE Scale satisfactorily fits the Rasch rating scale model, thus yielding a unidimensional measure with interval-level scaling properties. With increasing intensity, NDEs reflect peace, joy and harmony, followed by insight and mystical or religious experiences, while the most...
The DSM-IV definition of delusion is argued to be unsatisfactory because it does not explain the mechanism for delusion formation and maintenance, it implies that such beliefs are necessarily dysfunctional (pathological), it underestimates the social component to some delusions, and it is inconsistent with research indicating that delusions can be...
The field of Psychometrics routinely grapples with the question of what it means to measure the inherent ability of an organism to perform a given task, and for the last forty years, the field has increasingly relied on probabilistic methods such as the Rasch model for test con- struction and the analysis of test results. Be- cause the underlying i...
The utilization of 'Cusp Catastrophe Model' in describing the adoption of Microsoft's (MS) Word for Windows software is discussed. The theoretical framework for the analysis is based on work in the economics literature on network externalities. The analysis results suggest that organization will adopt a bandwagon-type behavior when network external...
Research on the relation between demographic variables and paranormal belief remains controversial given the possible semantic distortions introduced by item and test level biases. We illustrate how Rasch scaling can be used to detect such biases and to quantify their effects, using the Australian Sheep-Goal Scale as a substantive example. Based on...
Two studies tested a “strong” version of Nolen-Hoeksema's [Nolen-Hoeksema, S. (1987). Sex difference in unipolar depression: evidence and theory. Psychological Bulletin, 101, 259–282.] hypothesis of depressive response sets using samples of Australian respondents (Study I, n=1111) as well as US respondents (Study II, n=300), using a Rasch version o...
The strategy of delaying or retarding the progression of Alzheimer's disease requires early diagnosis and treatment. Previous research indicates that measurement of changes in olfaction and cognition will play an important role in the early detection of AD and in the monitoring of therapy effectiveness. Using the data of 177 subjects, our objective...
The Celebrity Attitude Scale, Quest Scale, and the Age-Universal I-E scale-12 were given to 307 British participants in an attempt to provide further psychometric validation of the former and determine the relationship between celebrity worship and religiosity. Results generally supported those of an earlier study showing that the Celebrity Attitud...
Celebrity worship has been conceptualized as having pathological and nonpathological forms. To avoid problems associated with item-level factor analysis, 'top-down purification' was used to test the validity of this conceptualization. The respondents (N = 249) completed items modelled after existing celebrity worship questionnaires. A subset of 17...
This paper will appear in a future issue of Studies in Nonlinear Dynamics and Econometrics. A copy of this paper, as well as the latest version of the software and of this Users' Guide, can be downloaded from the website: http://www.sbm.temple.edu/-oliva/cat-theory.htm This Guide consists of four sections. The first section describes the latent var...
The two-factor Rasch version of the Revised Paranormal Belief Scale reportedly measures individually oriented (New Age Philosophy) and socially oriented (Traditional Paranormal Belief) paranormal beliefs. Preliminary studies investigated the construct validity of this revised scale against other variables, but the prediction that dissociative and s...
Effects of age and sex in paranormal belief remain controversial because issues of scaling and differential item function are not given due attention. Therefore, in response to the recent debate between Irwin and Vitulli, these issues are reviewed and validated as crucial approaches for obtaining an objective measure of paranormal belief. A Rasch v...
This paper presents an empirical estimation of a catastrophe model of organizational adoptions of a high technology product when network externalities are present. As such, it integrates work from the economics literature and the catastrophe literature to provide a broader look adoptions issues. Additionally, it is one of the few empirical studies...
Although it has long been suspected that haunt and poltergeist phenomena form a hierarchy, compelling empirical evidence for this suggestion has been lacking. Using the data of 865 student respondents from 2 previous studies, Rasch scaling of 8 items from the Poltergeist subscale of the Anomalous Experiences inventory (V. K. Kumar, R. J, Pekala, &...
The concept of transliminality ("a hypothesized tendency for psychological material to cross thresholds into or out of consciousness") was anticipated by William James (1902/1982), but it was only recently given an empirical definition by Thalbourne in terms of a 29-item Transliminality Scale. This article presents the 17-item Revised Transliminali...
Using a framework derived from nonlinear dynamics, two studies investigated a cusp model of precognitive dreaming using the GEMCAT II software for catastrophe estimation. As predicted, Study I (N = 50) and Study II (N = 59) both indicated that tolerance of ambiguity and dream recall loaded significantly on the cusp's latent bifurcation variable (Y)...
Using mostly undergraduate student data (N=560), factor analysis confirmed the existence of seven factors in Tobacyk’s Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS). However, this replication proved to be of dubious value since (1) the factor structure was significantly affected by age and gender; (2) the items in Tobacyk’s original factors were significa...
Maher''s (1974, 1988) attribution theory of delusions was reformulated as a cusp catastrophe model and tested using 193 percipients'' paranormal beliefs, paranormal experiences, and fear of the paranormal as measured by Kumar et al.''s (1994) Anomalous Experiences Inventory, and their tolerance of ambiguity as measured by McDonald''s (1970) AT-20....
Based on an extended process model derived from attribution theory, we hypothesized that pervasive and persistent delusions of the paranormal are characterized by the existence of a positive (self-reinforcing), rather than a negative (self-correcting), feedback loop involving paranormal beliefs, fears, and experiences, as moderated by gender and to...
The responses of 110 subjects to 18 items of the AT-20 tolerance of ambiguity scale were analyzed in an item response framework using Rasch modeling. The results indicated that the items satisfy the assumptions of this model and an excellent fit was obtained. In particular, the observed item reliability (KR-20) was 0.93 and the person reliability w...
A cusp catastrophe model was fitted to the time series of kill dates of eleven serial murderers, using no additional external information. As predicted, this model provided a superior fit (Median R2 =0.67) to the data than competing linear models (Median R2 =0.43 and 0.22). Moreover, a single equation could be identified which was moderately effect...
50 college students completed the Anomalous Experiences Inventory, the AT-20 measure of tolerance of ambiguity, and a frequency of dream recall questionnaire. Using path analysis we show that precognitive dreams can be modeled as accidental 'hits' with increased dream recall and the interpretation of such hits as 'meaningful coincidences' seems fac...
The hypothesis that paranormal (poltergeist) experiences are delusions resulting from the affective and cognitive dynamics of percipients' interpretation of ambiguous stimuli was tested in two studies using a structural modeling approach. Consistent with attribution theory, study I indicated that such delusions are best modeled by a closed negative...
The study of the relation between electromagnetic fields and various psychological phenomena would be enhanced by the measurement
and correlation of time series over multiple energy bands. The paper discusses the design and implementation of a computerized
multi-energy sensor array (MESA) that detects and records low-frequency energy fluctuations....
This paper examines the results of the Third International Mathematics and Science Study (TIMSS) for the United States and South Korea. Eighth-grade mathematics scores for the two countries were studied as a function of school level variables and student level variables using Hierarchical Linear Modeling. Urban settings were found to be advantageou...
30 experiences of shamanic journeys derived from Harner (1990) were analyzed based on a recent coding scheme for contextual variables proposed by Lange, Houran, Harte, and Havens. Consistent with previous research, the experiential content of the trances was quite consistent with the content of the available contextual variables, and embedded cues...
Houran and Lange's psychological model of haunting phenomena predicts that contextual variables alone are sufficient to induce poltergeist-like perceptions. 22 subjects individually visited five areas of a performance theater and were asked to notice the environment. 11 subjects in an informed condition were instructed that the location was haunted...
A sample of 49 accounts of deathbed visions from Barrett's 1926 classic collection were analyzed using the classification scheme for contextual variables proposed recently by Lange, Houran, Harte, and Havens. Consistent with previous research, the contents of the contextual variables operating during these deathbed visions were consistent with the...
Hauntings and poltergeist-like episodes are argued to be products of contagious reactions to ambiguous environmental or cognitive events. In particular, evidence suggests that the subjective and objective effects reported by percipients are the function of independent, nonparanoraml etiologies whose constitutions have been previously established an...
A sample of 89 instances of angelic encounters found on Internet web sites were analyzed using the classification scheme for contextual variables proposed by Lange, Houran, Harte, and Havens (1996). Consistent with previous research, the contents of the contextual variables operating during these angelic encounters were consistent with the content...
Houran, et al's model for haunting phenomena predicts that fear of "paranormal phenomena" is associated with intolerance of ambiguity. Consistent with this prediction, ratings by 86 undergraduates (14 men and 72 women) showed a correlation of 33 between the scores on the Anomalous Experiences Inventory and the Rydell Rosen Ambiguity Tolerance Scale...
Two subjects were asked to keep a 30-day journal of occurrences in their residence which are traditionally associated with hauntings and poltergeist-like phenomena. It was expected that the instructions would increase the frequency of perception of unusual or rarely occurring events in their residence, resulting in an attentional and "perceptual co...
The content of perceived apparitions, e.g., bereavement hallucinations, cannot be explained entirely in terms of electromagnetically induced neurochemical processes. It was shown that contextual variables influential in hallucinatory and hypnotic states also structured reported haunting experiences. As predicted, high congruency was found between t...
The requirement of a strict and fixed distinction between dependent variables and independent variables, together with the presence of missing data, typically imposes consid- erable problems for most standard statistical prediction pro- cedures. This paper describes a solution of these problems through the "weighted effect" approach in which recurs...
Previous research has shown that persuasive communications lead to less change if the positions of the source and receiver of a persuasive communication fall on different sides of the midpoint of a response dimension than if these positions fall on the same side of the midpoint. Using an interactive computer system, a task was designed to replicate...
In the persuasive-communication literature, the discrepancy between the position of the source (PS) and the initial position of the receiver (P1) of a message is usually defined in quantitative terms. Consistent with accentuation theory, it was hypothesized that category differences between P1 and PS on a peripheral dimension would decrease receive...
The popular problem-solving game of Mastermind may be considered a complex concept-learning problem with a selection paradigm and an unusual set of feedback rules. Analysis of the game tree for a simplified version of Mastermind suggested 2 selection strategies—focusing and tactical—analogous to those identified in previous research (e.g., J. S. Br...
This research tested the hypotheses that anomalous photograph-ic effects must be attributed to the specific recording medium being used, and that the interpretations of such anomalies as paranormal or Fortean are the re-sult of the situational context under which the photographs were obtained. As predicted, an analysis of 67 previously published ph...