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What is the context of this research?

We would like to run two (maybe three) further studies based on our original project. The first would investigate the kinds of information that are (or are not) easily learned by the unconscious mind. The second would see what conditions affect the retrieval of unconscious knowledge, including such things as a player’s cultural background. We would also like to run a third experiment if we reach our initial funding goal. This third experiment would explore the collective unconscious — e.g., whether we can combine the unconscious knowledge of several people without their being aware of this.

What is the significance of this project?

You know a great deal more than you are consciously aware of. The idea of a hidden mind directing our lives is not a new idea, but is one which hasn't been easy to study in a rigorous way. We believe that ouija is a promising way to explore what we keep hidden below our consciousness. Using our methods, we can compare participants' conscious and unconscious answers, and get some interesting insight into what our unconscious mind is capable of, and perhaps even a better understanding of why we have consciousness.

What are the goals of the project?

These will be used for two things: (1) compensating the participants in our experiments; each participant will be given $10 for their participation. (2) supporting research assistants to conduct the experiments and analyze the data.