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smoked salmon wrote:Wondering if someone could help me.

I'm looking for the text that was used in a psychology experiment, where everyone was given a personality analysis (apperantly based on their answers in a survey - but in reality everyone got the same answer), and asked to rate it on a scale from 1 to 10.

It is named in "Quirkology", but someone has borrowed my copy

What was the name of the experiment/the person conducting the experiment? Or do you have a link to the text?

In 1948, US clinical psychologist Bertrand Forer designed and carried put an experiment to discover the power of the personal validation fallacy. He gave gave his students a detailed, written personality questionnaire to fill out. Based on this, he produced a personal analysis for each student. He then asked each to score theirs from 0 (bad) to 5 (excellent) based on how closely it matched their personality. When averaged out over all the students who took part, the mean score was 4.26 (very accurate, in other words).

Experiments in psychology are deliberately devious, however. They lull the subjects into believing one thing is happening when the researchers are in fact studying something else entirely. This is because if the subject knows what’s going on, he or she will behave differently. Forer’s experiment was no exception. In fact, the initial questionnaire played no part in the proceedings at all. It was simply designed to distract the students from the true purpose of the experiment . Forer had assembled a stock personality reading from a number of phrases that could equally apply to anyone. He gave exactly the same text to every student as their “personal” character assessment.

The fact that Forer’s students scored these apparently personal readings so highly shows the power of the underlying personal validation fallacy, also known as the "Forer Effect". It works in many other contexts, and it's very robust.

Thanks! I remembered being in Tricks of the Mind, but a friend is borrowing that book as well

I can send the text of Derren's personality experiment to people if they want it. I don't think it would be a copyright issue since Derren was evidently happy for it to be published and a several page extract would fall under the catagory of "fair use". And we're all magicians here

I'll get my copy of Tricks of the Mind back tomorrow, but thanks for the offer Kate

Mine still hasn't gotten to me? I'm sort of getting annoyed I'll email the ebay guy.

Ian the Mental-Ian wrote:Mine still hasn't gotten to me? I'm sort of getting annoyed I'll email the ebay guy.

It can take quite a while, transatlantic. Even in this day and age. You can't e-mail a package you know.

It's not transatlantic though.

Ian the Mental-Ian wrote:It's not transatlantic though.

Really? Oh. I thought you bought it from over here....

Well, the US of A is rather large too, and you do live to one side of it, deep down in the corner. Perhaps TransAmerica is just as slow.

Perhaps your US postal service is just slow too.

When did he supposedly send it? Consider how long its been and the reliability of your post service, then contact the seller. First say kindly, 'I don't have my item yet, when did you send it and via which service and class'. Then give it a little more time before going into full complaint if you still don't get it.

Yah but it's usually a max of 5 days. It was standard shipping so it doesn't usually take 10 days. Oh well if it doesn't come by next monday, I'll email him.

Look at that it was overseas . It came today, from what I read so far I'm thoroughly pleased.

Does anybody else use the memory system the linking one? Do you speed up with it or does it stay about the same?

Ian the Mental-Ian wrote:Does anybody else use the memory system the linking one? Do you speed up with it or does it stay about the same?

The more you practice, the quicker and better you become.

I practiced like mad with the intention of being able to memorise a full deck at one viewing. I got to about 25 cards reliably until I thought to myself "Why am I doing this and who is it going to impress?" So I stopped. It was the right decision.

Ian the Mental-Ian wrote:Does anybody else use the memory system the linking one? Do you speed up with it or does it stay about the same?

If it's a fast memory system you want to learn try and find a copy of the now out of print 'How To Develop A Perfect Memory by Dominic O'Brien'. Derren recommends it in the back of Tricks Of The Mind along with a few others .

MasterCyde wrote:

Ian the Mental-Ian wrote:Does anybody else use the memory system the linking one? Do you speed up with it or does it stay about the same?

If it's a fast memory system you want to learn try and find a copy of the now out of print 'How To Develop A Perfect Memory by Dominic O'Brien'. Derren recommends it in the back of Tricks Of The Mind along with a few others .

I have two copies for sale; one paperback and one hardback (I've kept the other hardback for myself!).

themagicwand wrote:I practiced like mad with the intention of being able to memorise a full deck at one viewing. I got to about 25 cards reliably until I thought to myself "Why am I doing this and who is it going to impress?" So I stopped. It was the right decision.

That is such a good point. There are far better ways of doing those sorts of "memory feat" shenannigans. My favoured technique is called "Cheating". It's also much more reliable