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Originally Posted by Chris Noble  The difference here is that "psi" is by definition simply an anomaly. "Psi" is not a specific effect that can be predicted or falsified.
Could Sheldrake's "morphic resonance" have been falsified by the dog experiments? Could there have been a result that would there have been a result that would have made Sheldrake change his mind?
That's the beauty of Sheldrake's experiments. If an anomaly, any anomaly, remains then it can be counted as evidence for "morphic resonance". If the anomaly disappears then it doesn't matter because "morphic resonance" doesn't make any definite predictions.
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You have to be very careful not to end up in the logically absurd position in which you assert that because Ψ 'is an anomaly' the rules for accepting any evidence are absurdly high, and therefore there is no evidence!
I actually think your anomaly argument would have some force if used properly. For example, there was a study made into the claims of astrology, and the astrologists made great play with the fact that there was some slight correlation of some personal features with one particular zodiac sign. It would be right to dismiss this using your 'anomaly argument' because any anomaly - whether consistent with the predictions of astrology or not - would presumably have counted.
Sheldrake's experiments are not in this category. This was a test of a frequently reported phenomenon under controlled conditions. Sheldrake would not have claimed it as a success if the dogs had instead seemed to use their waiting behaviour to signal the winner of the 4.30!
There was only one type of behaviour that was ever going to count as a success.
There are, in fact a lot of conventional experiments that can only really come out with a 'yes' or a 'don't know'. If they find a Higgs boson when the new accelerator starts up, that will be a success, if they don't - well they will constrain a few parameters in some model, and wait for the next accelerator!
To this we could add, gravity waves, life under the surface of Mars or Titan, or Europa, SETI, searches for bacteria with unusual biochemistry .... all of which are deemed worthy of huge experimental effort.
Finally, tell me this. How would you explicitly test to see if a dog could use other information to perform this trick
in the presence of possible genuine Ψ. You couldn't - could you? All you can do is look for Ψ by designing an experiment that excluded other factors - which is what Alex is trying to do.
Let's face it, you just hate the idea of Ψ!
David