timtyler comments on Schools Proliferating Without Evidence - Less Wrong

40 Post author: Eliezer_Yudkowsky 15 March 2009 06:43AM

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Comment author: timtyler 26 March 2013 12:18:18AM 1 point [-]

Remember Rorschach ink-blot tests? It's such an appealing argument: the patient looks at the ink-blot and says what he sees, the psychotherapist interprets their psychological state based on this. There've been hundreds of experiments looking for some evidence that it actually works. Since you're reading this, you can guess the answer is simply "No."

I checked. It doesn't say "No".

Comment author: Vaniver 26 March 2013 12:47:17AM 5 points [-]

I checked. It doesn't say "No".

That depends on what Eliezer / you mean by "it." From my reading of the evidence, the claim that the psychotherapist can interpret the patient's psychological state by use of the Rorschach ink-blots has been refuted; any knowledge they get is probably from cold reading, and they fail to notice real evidence they're not looking for. This is an empirical statement about the population of psychotherapists, rather than the best application of the test, though.

Comment author: timtyler 26 March 2013 01:12:19AM 0 points [-]

Cold reading sounds pretty negative. Cold reading is a technique used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to dupe their marks. If you want to go with a negative comparison, perhaps consider Tasseography ;-)

Comment author: Vaniver 26 March 2013 01:59:05AM 3 points [-]

Cold reading sounds pretty negative. Cold reading is a technique used by mentalists, psychics, fortune-tellers, mediums and illusionists to dupe their marks. If you want to go with a negative comparison, perhaps consider Tasseography ;-)

I chose that phrase for its precision, not its emotional valence; were there a more neutral yet readily understandable term, I would have picked it instead.

Comment author: timtyler 26 March 2013 11:04:32AM -2 points [-]

For a start, "cold" seems as though it would often be wrong. It isn't "cold" reading when you have a medical history in front of you.

Comment author: Jayson_Virissimo 26 March 2013 12:48:21AM *  2 points [-]

I looked at the original 10 inkblots and saw pelvic bones in 9 of them. I wonder what that says about me...