PLoS ONE (Jan 2012)

Failing the future: three unsuccessful attempts to replicate Bem's 'retroactive facilitation of recall' effect.

  • Stuart J Ritchie,
  • Richard Wiseman,
  • Christopher C French

DOI
https://doi.org/10.1371/journal.pone.0033423
Journal volume & issue
Vol. 7, no. 3
p. e33423

Abstract

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Nine recently reported parapsychological experiments appear to support the existence of precognition. We describe three pre-registered independent attempts to exactly replicate one of these experiments, 'retroactive facilitation of recall', which examines whether performance on a memory test can be influenced by a post-test exercise. All three replication attempts failed to produce significant effects (combined n = 150; combined p = .83, one-tailed) and thus do not support the existence of psychic ability.