Automated Tests for Telephone Telepathy Using Mobile Phones

First automated telephone telepathy study using mobile phones (2015 publication, experiments conducted post-2008). Important for scalability but lower effect sizes than filmed studies, possibly due to convenience sampling and reduced participant motivation. Unsupervised design leaves cheating possible though authors argue pattern makes this unlikely. Critical caveat: when restricting to trials where all callers responded in <4 minutes (eliminating delay-based cues), the three-caller hit rate drops to 34.8% (NS) and two-caller to 53.2% (NS) — the significant results are driven by trials with longer caller delays (Tables 6-7), raising the possibility that response-time patterns provided non-telepathic information.

Two automated experiments tested telephone telepathy using mobile phones under real-life conditions. In experiment 1 (three callers, 2080 trials), hit rate was 41.8% vs 33.3% chance (p < 10^-15, d = 0.19). In experiment 2 (two callers, 745 trials), hit rate was 55.2% vs 50% chance (p = .003, d = 0.10). Incomplete tests showed 43.8% hit rate, ruling out optional stopping. Hit rates increased with longer caller response delays. No significant effects of sex, age, or practice. First demonstration of automated mobile phone telepathy testing feasibility, though effect sizes smaller than supervised studies (d = 0.35-0.46).