The relationships among performance on a prototype indicator of perceptual defence/vigilance, personality, and extrasensory perception

Two experiments compare performance on a prototype indicator of perceptual defence/vigilance with performance on other related measures of individual differences. On the basis of theoretical expectations and empirical findings, participantsʹ performance on the prototype indicator of perceptual defence/vigilance was predicted to relate to the personality factor of Neuroticism, and to performance on a forced-choice ESP task. In both experiments, perceptual defence/vigilance related as predicted to these measures: defensive participants had higher Neuroticism scores, and lower ESP scores than vigilant participants. Defensive participants also consistently showed fewer signs of mental health than vigilant participants on an exploratory self-report indicator of mental health. It is concluded that the prototype measure shows some promise as a measure of perceptual defence/vigilance, and that with further development it might have a future role in the enhancement of human performance under stress.