Interpreting Electronic Voice Phenomena: The role of auditory perception, paranormal belief and individual differences by Ann R. Winsper A thesis submitted in partial fulfilment for the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy at the University of Central Lancashire April 2020 STUDENT DECLARATION FORM Type of Award _PhD_________________________________ School __Psychology__________________________ Sections marked * delete as appropriate 1. Concurrent registration for two or more academic awards *I declare that while registered as a candidate for the research degree, I have not been a registered candidate or enrolled student for another award of the University or other academic or professional institution 2. Material submitted for another award *I declare that no material contained in the thesis has been used in any other submission for an academic award and is solely my own work 3. Collaboration Where a candidate’s research programme is part of a collaborative project, the thesis must indicate in addition clearly the candidate’s individual contribution and the extent of the collaboration. Please state below: ______________________________________________________ 4. Use of a Proof-reader or *No proof-reading service was used in the compilation of this thesis. Signature of Candidate Print name: ___Ann R WInsper__________________________________ 1 Thesis Abstract Electronic Voice Phenomena are anomalous voices that appear on audio recordings (Barušs, 2001) and various techniques have been suggested for obtaining these voices. People who investigate potentially paranormal, site based anomalies (ghosthunters) have in recent years been using techniques to obtain EVP voices, and declaring them as proof of the paranormal. Previous studies have examined the role of paranormal belief on various personality factors and on cognition, however individuals who use EVP as a technique (high-EVPers) have not previously been studied to ascertain if they differ from both the sceptical population (non-EVPers) and people who believe in the paranormal but who do not use EVP techniques (low-EVPers). The current studies examined personality variable differences between non-, low and high-EVPers. A new questionnaire, the Paranormal Investigation Experience Questionnaire, proved capable of differentiating between non-, low- and high-EVPers, and displayed high reliability. From the current studies, it does not appear that EVPers can be classified as a separate group of individuals when compared with general paranormal believers when comparing personality traits. It is possible to define them as a group based on their experiences of EVP, but this separation is not found when investigating a number of individual difference measures which have been shown to be able to distinguish between general paranormal believers and non-believers. EVPers demonstrated higher levels of sleep related hallucinations, which may have implications for how they are interpreting noise as EVP voices. There was a commonality in auditory test results between a number of personality factors, individuals high in these measures were all more likely to report hearing non-directional voices in noise, which may have implications for how EVPers are interpreting sound clips depending on how they are listening to those clips. High hallucinators reported hallucinated voices in their right ear, which supports previous research. The results suggest that a number of factors are involved in causing misperception of voices in noise, but these results may be applicable to the general population rather than specifically to a population of EVP experiencers. Suggestions as to future research and comparison with other methods of apparent paranormal communication are discussed. 1 THESIS ABSTRACT ................................................................................................................................ 1 LIST OF TABLES .................................................................................................................................... 7 THESIS SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................ 8 1 CHAPTER 1 ................................................................................................................................ 10 1.1 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 10 1.2 ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENA .................................................................................................... 10 1.2.1 Electronic Voice Phenomena – History and Techniques ..................................................... 10 1.3 CHARACTERISTICS OF ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENA ....................................................................... 14 1.4 EVP LISTENING TECHNIQUES ......................................................................................................... 15 1.5 EVP CATEGORIES ........................................................................................................................ 17 1.6 PROPONENTS OF EVP .................................................................................................................. 18 1.7 SURVIVAL ACCOUNTS OF EVP ........................................................................................................ 19 1.8 PSYCHOLOGICAL AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGICAL ACCOUNTS OF EVP ........................................................ 20 1.9 EVP METHODOLOGY ................................................................................................................... 23 2 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES ......................................................................................................... 24 2.1 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: PARANORMAL BELIEF ............................................................................... 24 2.2 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: AFTERDEATH BELIEFS ................................................................................ 25 2.3 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: BIG 5 PERSONALITY TRAITS ........................................................................ 26 2.4 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: SCHIZOTYPY ............................................................................................ 27 2.5 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: REALITY TESTING ..................................................................................... 29 2.6 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: DISSOCIATION ......................................................................................... 30 2.7 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: FANTASY PRONENESS ............................................................................... 31 2.8 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: HALLUCINATIONS ..................................................................................... 31 2.9 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: ILLUSIONS .............................................................................................. 32 2.10 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: DEATH ANXIETY ....................................................................................... 33 2.11 INDIVIDUAL DIFFERENCES: NARCISSISM ............................................................................................ 34 2.12 GENDER DIFFERENCES .................................................................................................................. 34 2.13 HANDEDNESS ............................................................................................................................. 35 3 AUDITORY PERCEPTION ............................................................................................................ 36 3.1 NATURE AND NEUROPSYCHOLOGY OF ‘PURE’ WHITE NOISE .................................................................. 36 3.2 PERCEPTION OF AMBIGUOUS AUDIO STIMULI ................................................................................... 37 3.2.1 Auditory and Speech Perception ........................................................................................ 37 3.2.2 Pronunciation of Words ..................................................................................................... 39 3.2.3 ListeninG TraininG .............................................................................................................. 41 3.3 AUDITORY PERCEPTION TASKS ....................................................................................................... 42 3.4 THE ROLE OF SUGGESTION AND PRIMING ......................................................................................... 44 4 SUMMARY ................................................................................................................................ 46 2 5 STUDY 1 – EXPLORING PARANORMAL BELIEF IN RELATION TO BELIEF IN ELECTRONIC VOICE PHENOMENA ..................................................................................................................................... 47 5.1 ABSTRACT .................................................................................................................................. 47 5.2 INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................................... 47 5.3 METHOD AND MATERIALS ............................................................................................................. 51 5.3.1 Paranormal InvestiGation Experience Questionnaire (PIEQ) (See Appendix E) .................. 52 5.3.2 The Revised Paranormal Belief Scale (RPBS) .....................................................................