SAICMP94. 004
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Science Applications International Corporation
Cognitive Sciences Laboratory
Memorandum
Date:
16 February 1994
To:
From
:
Dr. Edwin May
Subj ect:
Preliminary Research Results
SGI J
ILLEGIB
(U) This year we conducted three experiments:
(1) A confirmation experiment to determine if the quality of anomalous cognition (AC) results corre-
lates with the gradient of the Shannon entropy within the target.
(2) A search for an event-related desynchronization in the brain in response to an AC stimulus.
(3) A confirmation experiment to determine if an isolated person’s skin conductance can be influenced
by a remote individual.
(S/NF) We have observed significant effects in all three experiments. I will briefly outline the result for
each experiment and describe how it may impact operational anomalous cognition.
(1) Entropy Experiment. Three of our four receivers produced independently significant evidence for
AC. The best of these had a hitting rate of 50% (chance being 20%). The effect size for the four
subjects was 0.778, 0.742, 0.601, and -0.035, respectively. For comparison, the largest effect size
ever seen in Ganzfeld testing is 0.354. The major result, however, is a correlation of 0.502 with 31
degrees of freedom for the gradient of the Shannon entropy with AC quality. A correlation of this
magnitude is rare in psychological or behavioral studies. We are currentlyworking through a list of
potential artifacts that might have contributed to this correlation, but so far the correlation stands.
This is the first time in the history of the field that a physical variable has correlated with any AC
activity. It’s major contribution will be to guide future researchers in choosing targets that will opti-
mize theAC output.
It is only a modest extension to move this laboratory result into the operation-
al domain. To the degree Shannon entropy is roughly equivalent to classical thermodynamic entro-
py, AC-operations can be improved by choosing intelligence target sites that are likely to possess
dynamic changes of entropy (e.g., nuclear blasts, radioactive decay, radar, accelerators, etc.).
| (2) Alpha Desynchronization. A brain in “idle mode” oscillates at approximately 10 Hz.
It
is well
known that a brain cannot remain idle and do anything else. For example, responding to a sensory
stimulus (e.g., light flash, click sound, smell, touch, taste), thinking about something (e.g., counting
backward from 100 or imagining your grandmother’s kitchen), or moving a body part all interrupt
alpha production. Therefore, it would be odd, indeed, ifAC failed to interrupt alpha. Our current
experiment improved upon the previous protocols from Los Alamos by including behavioral evi-
dence ofAC as measured in brain waves. We have observed significant evidence for AC, and the
, preliminary EEG analysis
indicates that we may see an AC event-related desynchronization
(ERD). We currently have a probability against chance of only 0.2, but we have not yet sorted the
EEG data with regard to AC performance. The effect must be there. Ifwe fail to see it after analy-
sis, we will be able to quote a lower limit for the percent desynchronization.
Ifwe see an ERD, it will be the first time such an effect has been seen inAC research. The implica-
tions for R&D and operations are unbounded. An immediate potential is an AC polygraph-type
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