Abstract
A preregistered replication was conducted to test a previously reported “excess correlation” effect using an automated microcontroller-based apparatus. Fifty experimental sessions were run where acetic acid was automatically added to a “local” beaker while magnetic stimulation was applied; these sessions were interleaved with 50 sham sessions using the same apparatus, but where no acid was added. The prediction was that pH in a “remote” beaker, where nothing was added, would shift toward alkaline during a specific phase of the magnetic stimulus. Analysis confirmed a statistically significant shift in pH in the remote beaker, as compared to a simultaneously measured control beaker, within two minutes of the predicted stimulus (ΔpH = +0.0034, p = 0.005). By contrast, sham runs showed no effect (ΔpH = −0.0007, p = 0.53). The observed pH shift was similar to a pilot study’s finding (ΔpH = +0.004), supporting the reproducibility of previously reported excess correlation effects in water pH and validating the use of an automated methodology for systematic investigation of this phenomenon.
