3 ms·

Ah, but Rupert Sheldrake observed this effect with rats running through a maze significantly faster after a previous group of rats did it before without any com

Ah, but Rupert Sheldrake observed this effect with rats running through a maze significantly faster after a previous group of rats did it before without any communication whatsoever. He tested it with humans and puzzles as well. You also have to account for the morphogenetic resonance.

o_____________o 10y ago
If you're not trolling, morphic resonance doesn't stand up to scrutiny and is not accepted as a real phenomenon.
- fsiefken 10y ago
  I'm not trolling. Perhaps you mean to say that his theory is difficult to falsify or even non-falsifiable. I disagree with that, it predicts a specific outcome under certain conditions. His experiments show results, these experiments are difficult to reproduce, that doesn't mean there isn't some unknown mechanism at work and it's just methodological error as you assert. So if you are going to do this dolphin experiment and you have to account for this hypothetical mechanism I'd do the experiment at the same time overlooked by the same scientist (skeptic or believer doesn't matter in the psi hypothesis). Also read: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ruperts-resonance/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ruperts-resonance/
s_kilk 10y ago
surely the maze situation is best explained by the first rats leaving a scent trail behind, which would be easy to follow for the next rat?
- alphydan 10y ago
  I don't know how sound that data was, but in one of the cases the rats were solving a maze on the other side of the world (Australia) ... and yet started solving it better than the first rats in the UK. I'm not sure what the conclusion or the methodological error is. But it's not as simple as you paint it. [0] http://www.sheldrake.org/about-rupert-sheldrake/blog/rat-learning-and-morphic-resonance http://www.sheldrake.org/about-rupert-sheldrake/blog/rat-lea...
- theoh 10y ago
  This would be an example of stigmergy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy

o_____________o 10y ago

If you're not trolling, morphic resonance doesn't stand up to scrutiny and is not accepted as a real phenomenon.

fsiefken 10y ago
I'm not trolling. Perhaps you mean to say that his theory is difficult to falsify or even non-falsifiable. I disagree with that, it predicts a specific outcome under certain conditions. His experiments show results, these experiments are difficult to reproduce, that doesn't mean there isn't some unknown mechanism at work and it's just methodological error as you assert. So if you are going to do this dolphin experiment and you have to account for this hypothetical mechanism I'd do the experiment at the same time overlooked by the same scientist (skeptic or believer doesn't matter in the psi hypothesis). Also read: http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ruperts-resonance/ http://www.scientificamerican.com/article/ruperts-resonance/

s_kilk 10y ago

surely the maze situation is best explained by the first rats leaving a scent trail behind, which would be easy to follow for the next rat?

alphydan 10y ago
I don't know how sound that data was, but in one of the cases the rats were solving a maze on the other side of the world (Australia) ... and yet started solving it better than the first rats in the UK. I'm not sure what the conclusion or the methodological error is. But it's not as simple as you paint it. [0] http://www.sheldrake.org/about-rupert-sheldrake/blog/rat-learning-and-morphic-resonance http://www.sheldrake.org/about-rupert-sheldrake/blog/rat-lea...
theoh 10y ago
This would be an example of stigmergy: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stigmergy