Teaching Hypothesis Testing by Debunking a Demonstration of Telepathy

Abstract

Introductory psychology students were told that their instructor had telepathic powers. The instructor demonstrated these “psychic” abilities by transmitting various images into the minds of the students and a confederate. Students generated alternative hypotheses to account for the phenomena and designed methods to test their hypotheses. This article describes the methods used to perform the psychic acts and outlines the structure of the hypothesis-testing activity. By allowing students to experience firsthand the importance of the rules of science, this instructional method may encourage greater scientific skepticism than dose the direct teaching of the falseness of pseudoscientific claims.