CIA-RDP96-00789R002200640001-7

Approved For Releases 2001/03/07SCCIAERDP96-00789R002200640001-7
General Article
ENHANCING HUMAN
PERFORMANCE:
An Evaluation of "New Age"
Techniques Considered by the
U.S. Army
by John A. Swets and Robert A. Bjork
Unconventional techniques considered by the United States
Army for enhancing human performance were reviewed during
a two-year study by a committee of the National Research
Council. Little or no scientific evidence was found to support
the effectiveness of several, including neurolinguistic program-
ming in interpersonal influence and such paranormal tech-
niques as remote viewing and psychokinesis. Mixed results
were seen to characterize other techniques, for example, group-
cohesion procedures. Further study was suggested for a few,
including mental practice of motor skills. Guidelines requested
of the committee for future army evaluation of enhancement
techniques stressed the need for, and the conduct of, both lab-
oratory and field research. The committee recommended fur-
ther consideration of mainstream research in the behavioral
sciences as a basis for effective performance enhancements.
Five years ago the Army Research Institute (ARI)
asked the National Research Council to assess a field of
techniques designed to enhance human performance. As
a class, these techniques are extraordinary in that they
were developed outside of mainstream research in the
behavioral sciences and are accompanied by strong
claims for high effectiveness. The ARI wanted a commit-
tee to examine the potential of certain specified tech-
miques, to recommend appropriate criteria for evaluating
such techniques, and, where possible, to specify the re-
search necessary to advance understanding of perfor-
mance enhancements in areas of behavior related to the
proposed techniques. In pursuing this line of investiga-
tion, the ARI was reacting to broad and substantial ad-
rocacy in the army of trying to gain large enhancements
human performance by any conceivable means.
The army's interests, as summarized by ARI, included
more efficient learning, improved motor skills, altered
mental states, stress reduction, interpersonal influence,
group cohesion, and certain parapsychological pro-
cesses. More specifically, the army was considering the
possibilities that learning could take place during sleep,
that learning might be accelerated via packaged programs
designed for that purpose, and that motor skills might be
enhanced by guided imagery, mental practice, visual con-
centration, and biofeedback. Further, it wished to pursue
the possibility that mental states could be altered by self-
induced hypnotism, meditation, focused concentration,
or the integration of activity in the brain's hemispheres,
in order to promote periods of peak performance. The
army was also interested in whether biofeedback and
methods that purport to alter mental states might be use-
ful in managing stress. Certain aspects of interpersonal
and group processes were under examination as well,
including whether group cohesion, which might be fos-
tered by keeping army units intact, enhances group and
individual performance. Finally, the army had an interest
in such parapsychological processes as remote viewing
and psychokinesis, or mind over matter, especially men-
tal influence on the functioning of remote machines.
It may at first seem strange that anyone in the army
was interested in the panoply of behavioral processes and
techniques that characterized the countercultural human-
potential movement of the 1960s. However, in the 1980s
advocates of such techniques have had success with an
approach that is more entrepreneurial than ideological.
Moreover, the techniques are presented less as related to
general well-being and more as related to specific tasks,
such as marksmanship, second-language learning, and
sleep inducement. The army is not alone in this interest:
Private industry and the general public have also given
much attention to these New Age techniques in commer-
cially available programs of general training and self help.
The army's interest in extending human abilities through
parapsychological processes originated primarily in intel-
ligence circles rather than in training circles, but para-
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Address correspondence and reprint requests to John A. Swets,
Beranek and Newman, Inc., 10 Moulton Street, Cambridge, MA
358, or to Robert A. Bjork, Department of Psychology, University of
California, Los Angeles, CA 90024.
990
-

1
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
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Enhancing Human Performance
psychology soon became a bedfellow of the unconven-
tional training techniques in the army.
FORMATION OF THE NRC COMMITTEE
In conversations between Edgar M. Johnson, techni-
cal director of ARI, and David A. Goslin, then executive
director of the Commission on Behavioral and Social Sci-
ences and Education (CBASSE) of the NRC, and in a
formal letter request, it was indicated that the ARI lead-
ership wanted help, not only to reduce broad pressures
on it that had recently intensified, but also with an im-
portant national problem of interest to private industry
and the public as well as the military. CBASSE members
who evaluated this request included psychologists Wil-
liam K. Estes, Ira J. Hirsh, Lauren Resnick, and Stanley
Schachter. In response to the request, CBASSE moved
to set up a committee especially for the purpose, with
suggestions for particular kinds of expertise also from
other advisers including psychologists Robert Boruch,
Wendell R. Garner, Bert F. Green, and Gardner Lindzey.
The first author of this article was enlisted as committee
chair and, together with Goslin, he developed the final
recommendations for membership that were endorsed by
the commission.1 Daniel Druckman was appointed as the
committee's study director.
The Committee on Techniques for the Enhancement
of Human Performance (henceforth, the committee) met
first in late July 1985. ARI's Johnson along with George
Lawrence, its liaison to the committee, arranged for sev-
eral speakers at the first meeting, who informed and
sometimes perplexed the members. A few speakers de-
scribed single techniques, others waxed enthusiastic
about the full range of them, and one, a retired general,
spoke eloquently of his own extensive psychokinetic
powers.
General Maxwell R. Thurman was the motivational
speaker at dinner the first evening. His graphs demon-
strated that in terms of recruits' test scores, the army was
doing increasingly better, and also better compared to the
other services. His review of the traditional and growing
demands placed on soldiers, however, made clear that
these demands continued to outstrip abilities by a large
margin.
THE COMMITTEE'S APPROACH
The committee could easily imagine the great difficul-
ties faced in converting recruits, most of them with min-
imal education as well as short terms of duty, intos
sol
diers who possess the personal and social skills needed
battle as well as the technical skills needed to operate and
maintain complex equipment. It could understand urge
to look beyond slow, narrow, and insufficiently
targeted
mainstream research on human performance to enhance
ments that could come from elsewhere. And it was awar
that those in the army responsible for training and tech
nique evaluation would face difficulties in responding to
strong enhancement claims (both by army officers and
outside vendors) for diverse and far-ranging techniques
The committee agreed that the general problem deserved
objective and thorough examination and was willing to.
initiate such a study.
Subcommittees were formed on various facets of the
problem, including evaluation issues, sleep learning, ac-
celerated learning, guided imagery, biofeedback, spli,
brain effects, stress management, cohesion, influence
and parapsychology. The committee met as a whole sir
times in 2 years, in whole or part made ten site visits
invited twenty or so briefings, and commissioned tea
background review papers.2 It met twice with a Re
source Advisory Group of army officers formed for the
purpose.3
for ming a
some of
ARMY BACKGROUND
The army's interest in parapsychology is reported to
be longstanding, including, for example, sponsorship of
ESP research by J.B. Rhine in the early 1950s. Remote-
viewing experiments were conducted for the army by the
Stanford Research Institute in the 1970s. A military con-
cern has been that the Soviets have been active in the
development of psychic abilities, including the ability to
affect the behavior of others through mental telepathy. A.
proposal developed in the army for the First Earth Bat-
talion envisioned warrior monks with a range of parapsy-
2. Ten commissioned papers, available from the National Academy
Press, are these: Eric Eich, Learning during sleep; Robert E. Slavin, *
Principles of effective instruction; Deborah L. Feltz, Daniel M.
Landers, and Betsy J. Becker, A revised meta-analysis of the mental
practice literature on motor skill learning; Seymour Levine, Stress and
performance; Raymond W. Novaco, Stress reduction and the military.,
Dean G. Pruitt, Jennifer Crocker, and Deborah Hanes, Matching and ;
other influence strategies; Boaz Tamir and Gideon Kunda, Culture and
military performance; James E. Alcock, A comprehensive review d
major empirical studies in parapsychology involving random event gea-
erators and remote viewing; Monica J. Harris and Robert Rosenthal
Interpersonal expectancy effects and human performance research
Dale Griffin, Intuitive judgment and the evaluation of evidence.
3. The Resource Advisory Group consisted of general officers who
held the positions of Deputy Chief of Staff for Personnel, Deputy Chid
of Staff for Intelligence, Director of Army Research and Technology
Commander of the Soldier Support Center, and Commander, Medical
Research and Development Command and as well the Assistant Ser-
retary of the Army for Manpower and Reserve Affairs.
1. The committee consisted of John A. Swets, chair, Robert A.
Bjork, Thomas D. Cook, Gerald C. Davison, Lloyd G. Humphreys,
Ray Hyman, Daniel M. Landers, Sandra A. Mobley, Lyman W. Porter,
Michael I. Posner, Walter Schneider, Jerome E. Singer, Sally P.
Springer, and Richard F. Thompson.
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chological abilities allowing them, for example, to leave
their bodies and to walk through walls. (See, e.g.,
Squires, 1988.) These ideas and enhancement techniques
of the sort mentioned above were advanced by an infor-
mal group of some 300 army officers known as the Delta
Force (not to be confused with the antiterrorist unit hav-
ing the same name). Several other task forces in the army
were organized in the 1970s to examine and promote the
techniques.
An influential memo pulling much of this together for
the army was written in 1982 by General Thurman, then
a lieutenant general and deputy chief of staff for person-
nel. (Thurman went on to become a four-star general and
vice chief of staff, and was an architect of the army's very
successful recruiting campaign with the slogan of "Be all
that you can be.") He subsequently led the army's train-
ing effort as commander of the Training and Doctrine
Command. His memo identified "accelerated learning,
inferential focus, previsualization, psychokinetics and
biokinetics, remote viewing, biophysical stress preven-
tion, etc." as techniques that should be considered. It
was based in part on a half-dozen commercially available
techniques that may be characterized as follows.
Suggestive accelerative learning and teaching tech-
niques (SALTT) combine physical relaxation, mental
concentration, guided imagery, suggestion, and baroque
music to improve classroom performance. The Journal of
the Society for Accelerative Learning and Teaching pub-
lishes evaluations of applications of SALTT to language
training, typing instruction, high-school science courses,
and so forth.
Concentrix designates a specific procedure for training
visual concentration on a target, broadly defined, and
maximizing hand-eye coordination, balance, body con-
trol, and sensory and visualization skills. It is intended
for application not only to marksmanship but to the op-
eration of complex equipment, movement over long dis-
tances with the objectives of reducing fatigue, and intel-
ligence gathering.
Hemi-Sync,@ short for hemispheric synchronization,
consists of presenting tones of slightly different fre-
quency to each ear to produce a beating sound. An EEG-
measured brain response follows changes in the beat fre-
quency and changing sound patterns are thought to
change states of awareness. Recommended applications
are for language learning, stress reduction, reading skills,
problem solving, creativity, and sleep control.
Stress-management techniques are designed to allevi-
ate anxiety and tension and are implemented by self-help
books and groups and by clinics. They often emphasize
fitness, nutrition, and life styles, as well as strategies
such as progressive relaxation and image rehearsal. Pro-
moters claim an interactive effect and put forth a partic-
ular package of techniques.
Neurolinguistic programming (NLP) is intended pri-
marily to be a means of exerting influence over others.
The skilled practitioner is supposed to be able to deter-
mine what representational system (e.g., visual, audi-
tory, or kinesthetic) another person is using at the mo-
ment-by observing his or her speech, eye movements,
and posture-and then to frame communications to that
person in terms of the particular representational system
in use. A national association is reported to have a mem-
bership of about 500 persons.
In 1983, an ad hoc subgroup of the Army Science
Board, formed in response to General Thurman's memo,
issued a report supportive of further consideration of
these techniques. The group had been exposed to them in
an "experiential workshop format" during a four-day
meeting at the Monroe Institute of Applied Sciences,
developer of Hemi-Sync. It recommended that formal
mechanisms be established to undertake a major effort on
"human technologies," that "technologies should be
sorted into those which require a scientific base and need
verifiable, repeatable data for evaluation versus those
which are more analytic representing principles of good
practice and are evaluated by consensus, acceptance and
overall effectiveness," and, further, that research efforts
be managed jointly by the Army Research Institute and
the Medical R&D Command.
In 1984, ARI, which reported then to General Thur-
man, hired a program manager, commissioned review pa-
pers on five techniques, and requested of the National
Research Council that a committee examine the area. In
1985, ARI initiated research on several of the techniques
and reviewed army research in progress elsewhere.
THE COMMITTEE'S SPECIFIC FINDINGS
Learning During Sleep
The committee recommended that the army give sleep
learning a "second look." Considering only the sleep-
learning literature, there seemed little basis for any kind
of positive recommendation. This conclusion was rein-
forced in a detailed briefing by LaVerne Johnson of the
Naval Health Research Center. When all possible criteria
are applied to verify that the learner is truly asleep, there
appears to be no evidence of conscious recognition or
recall of materials presented during sleep (for a thorough
review, see Aarons, 1976). In fact, since the mid-1970s
research activity on sleep learning has nearly stopped, at
least in this country.
The committee, however, was influenced by recent
developments in basic research on "implicit memory,"
"stimulus-driven processing," "learning without aware-
ness," and related topics (for reviews, see Richardson-
Klavehn & Bjork, 1988; Schacter, 1987; Shimamura,
1986; and the commissioned paper by Eich, footnote 2).
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Enhancing Human Performance
That research, employing amnesic as well as normal sub-
jects, has illustrated that certain indirect measures of
memory (for example, perceptual identification, word-
fragment completion, procedural skills) can show large
effects of prior episodes when conventional recall and
recognition measures fail to show any such effects.
Viewed in that context, only certain types of learning
should take place during true EEG-verified sleep, and
learning should show up on only certain types of memory
tests. In general, the past negative results were obtained
with inappropriate presentation procedures and with test-
ing procedures that were insensitive to any learning that
might take place.
The committee's primary recommendation was that
the degree of learning of materials presented during sleep
be examined again as a basic-research problem. Rather
than looking at intentional recall or recognition of mate-
rial presented during true sleep, the committee urged the
army to look for effects such as lowering of perceptual
thresholds for items presented during sleep, semantic or
affective biasing in the postsleep interpretation of verbal
items as a consequence of their being presented in biased
contexts during sleep, repetition effects (enhancing
postsleep performance on material studied before the
sleep period by repeating the material during the sleep
period), and priming effects (facilitating postsleep acqui-
sition of material by presenting that material during the
preceding sleep period).
Recent research on state dependencies in human
learning (Eich, 1989) also influenced the committee. If
learning during sleep is to some extent state-specific,
then it might transfer more effectively to the states of
drowsiness and semisleep that accompany exhaustion
and sleep deprivation than it does to the normal waking
state. Since cognitive performance deteriorates under
sleep deprivation, such potential transfer of sleep-
training might help the subject when he or she needs it
most. Finally, the committee thought that learning that
depends on sleep disruption might be examined from a
cost-benefit standpoint; procedures that disrupt the
quantity or quality of sleep might shorten training or have
other benefits that could outweigh their costs.
Accelerated Learning
The committee focused primarily on one particular
learning package, SALTT (Suggestive accelerative learn-
ing and teaching techniques.) Literature in the Journal of
the Society of Accelerative Learning was reviewed and
committee member Schneider attended the society's na-
tional meeting in 1986. The commissioned paper by
Slavin provided background information on the teacher's
contributions to effective instruction and the paper by
Harris and Rosenthal considered the potential contribu-
tion of the learner's expectations in the SALTT enviro
ment (see footnote 2).
The committee concluded that the extravagant clain
for accelerated learning programs are unjustified. The
fectiveness of such programs did not exceed what mio
be expected on the basis of the mainstream instruction
elements (for example, imagery, cooperative learning
tests as motivational devices and learning events) that an
embedded in a non-traditional framework including
laxation exercises and special music. The committee di
feel, however, that there was value in the kind of holisti
approach to instruction exemplified by such programa
The army was encouraged to use its resources to evaluate
competing training procedures in order to isolate
: the
components of instruction that are effective in army set.
tings.
Improving Motor Skills
The committee focused on three strategies to enhance
motor skills: mental practice, visual concentration, and
biofeedback. A background paper by Feltz, Landers, and
Becker on the mental-practice literature was solicited by
the committee (see footnote 2), and there were four brief.
ings: one on peak performance issues, and three by ex.
perts on or promoters of visual-training techniques. In
addition, Landers and Bjork made site visits to the head-
quarters of SyberVision® and to the Vic Braden Tennis
Academy. SyberVision is a highly successful marketer of
audio and visual tapes designed to enhance skills such as
golf, tennis, skiing, bowling, racquetball, and others,
Tapes such as "The Neuropsychology of Achievement"
address more global skills. What is shown on the tapes
and the instructions to the learner are supposedly guided
by a principle of "neuromuscular programming," which
is in turn derived from Karl Pribram's holographic theory
of brain function. The subcommittee interviewed Pri-
bram, director of research for SyberVision, and Stephen
De Vore, founder and president.
With respect to mental practice, defined as "the sym-
bolic rehearsal of a physical activity in the absence of any
gross muscular movements" (Richardson, 1967, p. 95),
the committee's recommendations were quite positive. A
meta-analysis of the relevant research literature revealed
that mental practice yields a gain in performance on the
order of half a standard deviation when compared to ap-
propriate controls. The gain is somewhat greater for mo-
tor tasks that incorporate a substantial cognitive compo-
nent, and the advantages of mental practice can be
enhanced if physical practice and mental practice are in-
terspersed. The committee recommended that the army
evaluate mental practice as a training component in op-
erational military tasks, and that the army pursue basic
research to determine what mixture of mental and phys-
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John A. Swets and Robert A. Bjork
ical practice might be optimal (given considerations of
expense, equipment availability, and so forth).4
Concerning visual-training programs, the committee
concluded that there was no research base to suggest that
such training leads to improved performance. There is
evidence that certain visual abilities can be improved by
training the eye muscles, but evidence that attentional
skills can be enhanced by visual training is lacking.
The committee concluded that there remain too many
loose ends for the relationship between biofeedback and
skilled performance to be determined. Part of the prob-
lem is that biofeedback is often used as part of broader
therapeutic programs that incorporate other, possibly ef-
fective, techniques. Another problem is that biofeedback
is used to train physiological parameters (heart rate, for
example) although clear knowledge of the most desirable
levels of these parameters with respect to a given skill
typically does not exist. In cases where that relationship
is known (e.g., hand warmth and finger dexterity), there
is evidence of performance benefit.
Altering Mental States
The idea that people can achieve an internal state that
will be optimal for a broad range of performance has been
appealing. Some level of arousal is optimal for perfor-
mance of a given complexity (Duffy, 1962; Yerkes &
Dodson, 1908) and, specifically, the optimal level de-
creases as task complexity increases (Easterbrook,
1959). This concept fits the behavior theories of the
1950s, which specified that a source of energy or drive is
required to keep the organism active and was reinforced
by the physiological discovery of a diffuse activating sys-
tem in the brain (Moruzzi & Magoun, 1949). However,
with new knowledge of the variety and specificity of neu-
rotransmitter systems (Robbins & Everitt, 1982) and with
psychological theory focused on cognition, we have be-
gun to think of a large number of cortical computations in
widely distributed neural systems (Rumelhart & McClel-
land, 1986). The view that cortical computations are mod-
ulated by different transmitter systems in varying ways
makes it more difficult to suppose that any training tech-
nique will provide optimal states for all forms of physical
and mental activity. An example comes from the finding
that the optimal conditions of alertness for rapid respond-
ing differ from those for the best memory performance
(Posner, 1975).
Unfortunately, the committee did not find time to ex-
plore the evidence for the wide variety of specific training
or induction methods that might provide a basis for tech-
niques for manipulating internal states. It recommended a
literature review of links between such techniques and
changes in performance and, in its next phase, will ex-
amine further the techniques of intensive meditation and
self-hypnosis.
The committee considered issues of brain asymmetry
in detail. It reviewed Hemi-Sync, in part through a visit
by Springer, Thompson, Druckman, and Lawrence to the
Monroe Institute in Virginia where it was developed. Al-
though this technique is said to be valuable in therapeutic
settings (pain control in cancer patients, alcohol abuse,
retardation, autism, and seizure disorders) and though
formal research designs have been approximated for its
application in a few educational settings (courses in basic
broadcasting, ear training, and introductory psychology),
the committee concluded that current attempts to alter
performance through coordinating the two hemispheres
by an external or instructional device do not appear to be
effective. It observed, more generally, that the scientific
evaluation of claims for enhancing performance by in-
volving the hemispheres differentially awaits the devel-
opment of reliable measures of hemispheric activity in
individuals.
Stress Management
The clear thrust of the evidence from various types of
research on stress, from animal studies as well as human
studies, is that an individual's uncertainty about impend-
ing events and sense of control over them are the main
factors in perceived stress. This conclusion is supported
by the extensive review paper on stress and performance
prepared for the committee by Seymour Levine (see foot-
note 2). A case in point is the study of hormonal and
behavioral responses of Norwegian paratroop trainees as
they made repeated jumps from a tower on a guide wire
(Ursin, Baade, & Levine, 1978). Initially high elevations
of cortisone in the blood were reduced to basal levels
after the second jump and fear ratings changed similarly.
The implications of this research evidence for the
army are complex. There surely are practical limitations
on how much knowledge and understanding of the future
can be disseminated during combat and on how much
individual or group control can be permitted or demon-
strated. Moreover, though the committee focused prima-
rily on stress reduction, the army must also induce stress
during training to prepare soldiers for real combat. A
study by Novaco, Cook, and Sarason (1983) showed that
providing marine recruits with more realistic information
about what lies in store for them, and about the skills
necessary for coping with the rigors of boot camp, led
them to exhibit higher expectations of personal control
and efficacy.
4. Following on that recommendation, an experiment is underway at
the Redstone Arsenal in Alabama to evaluate mental practice as a com-
ponent in the training of complex soldering of electronic circuits.
Landers guided the design of conditions that will permit a comparison
of mental-practice, placebo, and standard training groups.
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The committee reviewed individual and intrapsychic
approaches to stress reduction, including arousal reduc-
tion (relaxation training and biofeedback), cognitive re-
structuring and problem solving, and behavioral skills
training. Regarding biofeedback, on which a conclusion
was specifically requested of the committee, it was found
that although biofeedback can achieve a reduction of
muscle tension, it does not reduce stress effectively.
Committee members' appreciation of military stress
was enhanced by a visit to Fort Benning, Georgia, where
they viewed paratroop training (and arranged, and then
mercifully aborted, an opportunity for David Goslin to
make a jump). They saw Bradley vehicles maneuvering
under fire and then rode in one. They also heard a pre-
sentation and viewed a videotape on the extraordinarily
demanding and stressful procedures of Ranger training,
which centers on several weeks of long daily marches
over difficult and hazardous terrains under severe envi-
ronmental conditions.
Influence Strategies
The committee's treatment of strategies of social in-
fluence centered on neurolinguistic programming (NLP).
NLP's wide use in the army was described by army rep-
resentative Robert Klaus in two briefings; a background
paper by Pruitt, Crocker, and Hanes was recruited by the
committee (footnote 2); and Singer, Davison, Mobley,
and Druckmann attended a workshop on NLP techniques
and interviewed Richard Bandler, one of the developers
of NLP. The conclusion was that little if any evidence
exists either to support NLP's assumptions or to indicate
that it is effective as a strategy for social influence.
NLP has also been used as a means to model expert
performance and the committee's visit to Fort Benning
included a review of a test of this aspect of NLP as ap-
plied to marksmanship. Though the committee could find
only one evaluation of NLP as a model of expert perfor-
mance, and found that one wanting, it did conclude that
the investigation of expert models constitutes a worth-
while activity for the army, and the continuing committee
plans to pursue that topic.
Group Cohesion
The army is quite committed to developing group co-
hesion. Its current COHORT system of keeping units
intact is motivated by the desire to enhance group per-
formance by increasing group cohesion. The chair of the
committee's resource advisory group, Lieutenant Gen-
eral Robert M. Elton, and the commander of the Army
Research Institute, Colonel William Darryl Henderson,
have written in support of it (Elton, 1984; Henderson,
1985). A technical report from the Walter Reed Army
Institute for Research points out that civilian scholars as
well as senior military officers accept that cohesion in-
hibits breakdown, without regard to the research com
munity's ability to demonstrate relationships ("The New
Manning System Field Evaluation," 1986, No. 3, p. 9)
Peters and Waterman's In Search of Excellence (1982)
may represent civilian scholars in this regard, and indeed
the research community has been supportive to a degree
(e.g., Campbell, 1975; Katz & Kahn, 1966).
The committee, however, believed that the arguments
in favor ought to be treated as hypotheses rather than
conclusions, citing difficulties in separating conse-
quences and indicators of cohesion, the gap between im-
proved cohesion and better unit performance, the ten-
dency to rely on single-factor explanations of group
performance, and the possibility of reciprocal effects be-
tween cohesion and performance. The current evidence
makes it necessary for organizations seeking to benefit
from cohesion to proceed largely on faith; the committee
referred to some possible negative consequences of co-
hesion as reviewed by Porter, Lawler, and Hackman
(1975): ineffective handling of deviance, "group think,"
increased impact of any existing negative norms, and
increased intergroup conflict. The committee also dis-
cussed issues of implementation that it saw as having
received little attention. A background paper by Tamir
and Kunda (footnote 2) developed implications from the
cultural perspective advanced by Schein (1985).
Parapsychology
The subcommittee on parapsychology made its prin-
cipal site visits to the laboratories of Robert Jahn at
Princeton University and Helmut Schmidt in San Anto-
nio to discuss experiments on the psychokinetic control
of random event generators. Experiments on remote
viewing were also discussed at Princeton. Hyman and
Humphreys were joined on both visits by Dr. Paul Hor-
witz, a consultant to the committee and a physicist at
Bolt Beranek and Newman Inc., who had organized a
1979 symposium on "Physics and Parapsychology" for
the American Physical Society that included as speakers
Helmut Schmidt and Ray Hyman. Also visiting Professor
Jahn were Druckman, Lawrence, and Paul Holland, then
a member of the committee. Hyman visited Edward May
at the Stanford Research Institute to discuss experiments .
on random event generators and remote viewing. Hyman
and Horwitz were briefed by representatives of the U.S.
Army Laboratory Command on parapsychology and mil-
itary intelligence; Druckman and Swets were briefed on
Soviet parapsychology by representatives of the Army
Foreign Science and Technology Center and the Defense!
Intelligence Agency. In connection with a meeting held in
San Diego, the entire committee, kindly accompanied by
local psychology professors George Mandler and William
McGill, visited the laboratory of Cleve Backster who sup-
90
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VOL. 1,

PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
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John A. Swets and Robert A. Bjork
vests that the electrical activity of a preparation of leu-
kocytes taken from the mouth of a human subject re-
eponds to the emotional states of the subject, at a later
time and in a different place. For this visit, the promise to
the committee, not fulfilled, was an observable demon-
stration of anomalous events.
Visitors to Professor Jahn's laboratory were shown
how subjects sit in front of one of three kinds of random
event generators and attempt to affect the behavior of the
device in one of three ways: In the PK + mode, the sub-
ject tries to get a higher than chance level of hits; in PK -
mode, a lower than chance level; and in baseline mode, a
number of hits equal to the chance level. Under volitional
conditions, the subject is free to select among the three
modes; under instructed conditions, he or she is not.
Horwitz observed that the investigators reported no dif-
ferences in results occasioned by a transition from a true
random event generator (an analogue electronic device or
a mechanical device) to a pseudorandom event generator
(a digital, programmed device) that is actually determin-
istic and nonrandom. They believed that their subjects
could will changes in a voltage or voltage threshold of a
noise source or changes in the trajectories of small balls
falling down a chute with multiple obstacles and, equally
well, changes in certain bits (from zeros to ones or vice
versa) of predetermined and otherwise completely repro-
ducible sequences as generated by an array of shift reg-
isters.
At his Mind Science Foundation in San Antonio, Dr.
Schmidt described an experiment designed to permit a
skeptical group of scientists to apply adequate controls to
a psychokinesis experiment without destroying the psy-
chological environment for a subject that is said by psi
researchers to be critical for obtaining positive results.
Both groups use a piece of data not yet available (e.g.,
specified weather data from the New York Times at some
agreed upon future date) as a pointer into a given table of
random numbers, which will generate "seed numbers" to
a pseudorandom number generator and hence produce a
predetermined sequence of ones and zeros. Both groups
follow a set procedure to assign PK + and PK - modes to
the seed numbers and thereby instructions for the sub-
ject. An agreement made during the site visit to conduct
a joint experiment with Dr. Horwitz as participant, which
would be monitored by the committee, was not followed
up by Dr. Schmidt.
The committee benefited from a review of the litera-
ture on remote viewing and random event generators pre-
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The only photograph of committee activities was taken at the February 1986 San Diego meeting. From left
to right: Davison, Bjork, Posner, Hyman, Schneider, Swets, Landers, Mobley, Porter, Druckman, Hum-
phreys, Thompson, Springer, and Singer.
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.
PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
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Enhancing Human Performance
pared for the Army Research Institute by John Palmer
and from a review of the same studies that it commis-
sioned Alcock to make. The committee also reviewed the
other main body of experimental research, namely, on
Ganzfeld experiments, in which a homogeneous visual
field is used to alter states of mind in the interest of
receiving psi signals. A paper on intuitive judgment and
the evaluation of evidence was prepared for the commit-
tee by Griffin (see footnote 2).
With particular attention to the three sets of experi-
mental studies, but including its other reviews and expe-
riences, the committee found no scientific warrant for the
existence of parapsychological phenomena. ("No scien-
tific justification" was the phrase agreed on with NRC
editors for the committee's report, but "warrant" cap-
tures better the intended sense.) Though the committee
therefore saw no reason for direct army involvement, it
felt that monitoring by the army of the main, current,
experimental work would be prudent and suitable. If that
monitoring led to the proposal of specific studies, the
recommendations were that army and outside scientists
arrive at an agreed-upon research protocol, that the re-
search be conducted by proponents and skeptics, and
that attention be given to the manipulability and practical
application of any effects found to exist.
GENERAL CONCLUSIONS
AND RECOMMENDATIONS
The committee observed a pervasive army tendency to
accept and implement enhancement techniques on the
basis of personal or clinical experience and marketplace
popularity instead of on the basis of research evidence
that could establish the existence and usefulness of an
enhancement effect. In expressing its concern about this
practice, the committee issued a list of questions about
presumed enhancement techniques that had been pre-
pared by scientists at the Walter Reed Army Institute for
Research: What changes will the technique produce?
What evidence supports the claims for the technique?
What theories stand behind it? Who will be able to use it?
What are its implications for army operations? How does
it fit with army philosophy? What are the cost-benefit
factors? (Hegge, Tyner, & Genser, 1983).
Because strong claims of support from basic research
have been made for some of the techniques the commit-
tee examined, the committee reviewed in its report what
it takes to justify a scientific claim. Specifically, it high-
lighted the need to conduct basic research so that infer-
ences could be drawn in accordance with scientific stan-
dards-inferences about novel concepts, causation,
alternative explanations of causal relations, and the gen-
eralizability of causal relations. Standards for evaluating
field tests of enhancement programs were also reviewed,
including such factors as immediate effects, side effects,
assigning merit and meeting needs, likelihood of transfer
and contrast with alternatives.
The committee acknowledged the differences between
rational decision making in science and in practical con
texts, for example, differences in the benefits of correct
decisions and the costs of incorrect decisions and in what
is viewed as a timely decision. It recommended that the
army acknowledge such differences explicitly in connec.
tion with decisions about particular techniques. It set
forth an analysis of the unreliability of testimonies as
evidence for enhancement effects. And it stipulated what
it thought would be useful mechanisms for advice to dif.
ferent parts of the army as well as bidding procedures it .
felt would facilitate informed choices of programs and
vendors.
The committee recommended that the army continue
to examine vigorously enhancement techniques that ap-
pear promising. It added the advice that the examination
should be systematic and should include techniques
drawn from mainstream research as well as packages pro-
moted by vendors. A main concern of the committee was
to link more closely the army's great interest in enhanc-
ing human performance and its substantial resources for
conducting tests to evaluate techniques. The committee
remarked on the potential for transfer to the civilian sec-
tor.
COMMITTEE PUBLICATIONS
The committee's final report was published as a book
by the National Academy Press in early 1988, entitled
Enhancing human performance: Issues, theories, and
techniques, edited by Druckman and Swets. (A second
printing was made a year later.) With preliminary copies
available, a briefing was given army officials and a press
conference was held in December 1987, with Swets,
Bjork, Hyman, Singer, and Druckman representing the
committee. The press conference was attended by some
fifty reporters who heard a 15-minute prepared statement .
and then raised questions for an hour or so. Primary ar-
ticles appeared in the New York Times (Leary, 1987),
Washington Post (Squires, 1987a, 1987b), Washington
Times (Price, 1987), and Los Angeles Times (Gillette,
1987), and articles based on them appeared in many other
local and regional newspapers. Other news articles were ,
published in Science (Holden, 1987), Science News
(Greenberg, 1988), Science and Government Report
(Greenberg, 1987), APA Monitor (Hostetler, 1988), Psy- )
chology Today (Roberts, 1988), The Chronicle of Higher
Education (Wheeler, 1987), Beijing's Science and Tech-
nology Daily for June 29, 1988, and the NRC's News?
Report (Jarmal, 1988). Swets and Druckman co-authored .
an op-ed article that was printed in 25 daily newspapers.
The press conference was videotaped by NBC, CNN,
and the United States Information Agency. CNN re-
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PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
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John A. Swets and Robert A. Bjork
played small segments for a few days. NBC's camera did
not operate properly so Tom Brokaw's evening news
used file footage representing some of the Army's more
Jurid past interests, for example, in walking through
walls, and he commented in kind. National Public Radio
presented for a few days an interview with Robert Bjork
on learning techniques.
PUBLIC REACTION
The committee's book was reviewed descriptively un-
der the heading "Briefly Noted" by Sheldon Zedeck
(1988) in Contemporary Psychology. It was reviewed ex-
tensively by Philip Morrison (1988) in Scientific Ameri-
can. We appreciated his summary: "Among the most
difficult lessons in science is how not to deceive yourself.
This patient and judicious overview offers genuine help"
(p. 109). Irwin Child (1988), in a review for Choice, com-
plimented the exposition of general principles of evalua-
tion but noted what he called the report's "bias against
exploration of apparent anomalies not yet well attested"
(p. 536). Kendrick Frazier (1988) reviewed the book ex-
tensively for the Skeptical Inquirer, with emphasis on
paranormal phenomena.
Druckman and Swets received several phone calls and
letters, many of them complimentary (wanting more in-
formation and making suggestions), for example, from
the Los Angeles Police Department, and many of them
expressing concern over negative treatment of particular
techniques. In an interchange of several letters, Wilse
Webb argued that we had been too generous to one tech-
nique, that sleep learning was not worth a "second
look."
The strongest reactions came as expected from propo-
nents of the paranormal and these tended to be in letters
addressed to Frank Press, Chairman of the National Re-
search Council. Robert Jahn, former Dean of Princeton's
School of Engineering and Applied Science, wrote that a
biased committee made factual errors in reviewing his
experiments on mental biasing of random number gener-
ators. A copy from Jahn to Senator Claiborne Pell was
followed by a letter from Pell to Press. The senator was
concerned, among other things, about the possible im-
pact of the committee's report on the National Science
Foundation, which was said to be reconsidering support
of parapsychological research, and he no doubt had in
mind his plans to sponsor a bill to create a commission
to study parapsychology and other performance-
enhancement techniques, a bill co-sponsored by Senators
Gore and Kassebaum and now in committee (e.g., News-
week, June 26, 1989, p. 8). Not satisfied by the commit-
tee's detailed replies to Jahn's letters, Jahn and Pell car-
ried their case to the undersecretary of the army, who
responded that it would be improper for the army to in-
sert itself in this argument and that failing direct resolu-
tion with the NRC, resolution could be pursued through
scientific forums and journals.
The President of the Parapsychological Association,
Inc., Richard S. Broughton, also wrote to chairman
Press, emphasizing what he and his associates saw as
bias in the selection of the committee and an attempt by
the committee's chair to suppress a positive evaluation of
a set of parapsychology studies. Upon what it considered
an inadequate response from the NRC, the association
published a lengthy report as a "Reply to the National
Research Council Study on Parapsychology." That reply
was reviewed in the The Chronicle of Higher Education
(Wheeler, 1988) and in Omni magazine (Huyghe, 1989).
Similarly, R.A. McConnell of the University of Pitts-
burgh wrote Druckman and Swets and then mailed ex-
tensively a set of his materials, including his correspon-
dence with the NRC and an earlier article by him.
Colonel John Alexander (Ret.), one of the briefers at the
committee's first meeting, challenged the validity of its
report in the periodical New Realities (Alexander, 1989).
We should add that the NRC's executive office consis-
tently supported the committee's conclusions (and, we
understand, put off a potential donor as a result).5
THE ARMY'S REACTION
Army leadership was initially concerned about the
early publicity, primarily the negative treatment by NBC
News. Concern was expressed to and within the army by
advocates of specific techniques that had received nega-
tive evaluations. Field leaders at first showed limited in-
terest, largely through calls by users or opponents of
specific techniques. As time went on, the army received
favorable comments from several sources about the com-
mittee's report and the interest of field leaders increased.
One apparently influential event was Druckman's brief-
ing of the army's Human Factors Technical Group in
May 1988; another was the favorable mention of the re-
port in the chief of staff's monthly newsletter.
In September 1988, Bjork, Druckman, Johnson, and
Swets went to General Thurman's headquarters at Fort
Monroe, Virginia, to brief him on the study and to pro-
5. Colonel Alexander, who co-hosted the committee at Cleve Back-
ster's laboratory test of the emotional response of Posner's leukocytes,
wrote that the committee denigrated such scientific research by men-
tioning also the scientifically unsupported ideas of psychic warfare and
psychotronic weapons. Meanwhile, R.A. McConnell wrote that the
committee's mention of Backster's research was an attempt to taint
legitimate research on parapsychology. We noticed that the Parapsy-
chological Association, Inc., did not collaborate with McConnell in its
complaint about the committee's report and that Robert Jahn chose to
keep his adverse reaction separate from that of the Parapsychological
Association, Inc.
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93
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PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
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Enhancing Human Performance
pose directions for further study. That meeting, sched-
uled for 45 minutes but lasting 3 hours and 45 minutes,
was an exceptionally successful event. Thurman's ideas
about follow-on ARI research projects were many and
in knowledgeable and authoritative detail. He wanted the
committee to continue and gave it a new charter: rather
than evaluating others' solutions to soldier-performance
problems, it could choose from a list of general problems
that the army would generate and develop its own pro-
posed approaches. He was impressed, for example, that
academic psychology had insights into training for skill
retention instead of merely for rapid acquisition. And he
offered to arrange the classroom and field resources re-
quired for tests of concepts and evaluation of larger-scale
applications. General Thurman's comment about the
generally skeptical or negative evaluation by the commit-
tee of several enhancement techniques, some of which he
had personally considered seriously, was "I was listening
to my gurus of the time and I was wrong."
CONTINUING COMMITTEE ACTIVITIES
The second major phase of the committee's activities
is now underway. A newly constituted committee met in
July 1989 to put the final touches on an agenda that took
shape over the 19 months that followed the release of
Enhancing Human Performance.6 A second meeting at
General Thurman's headquarters in April 1989 was espe-
cially important in defining the committee's new tasks.
The meeting was hosted by Lieutenant General John
Crosby, who has assisted General Thurman and the com-
mittee throughout its existence; the presentations fo-
cused on current uses of self-assessment and other ap-
proaches to individual development in the army, on the
problems in maintaining high performance in situations of
high stress and high risk, and on the problem of detecting
deception. Subcommittees were appointed to consider
the following problem areas.
Long-term retention of skills and knowledge
Skills and knowledge gained in army instructional pro-
grams are often exercised often a year later. Therefore,
the committee will examine procedures that appear to
slow the acquisition rate initially but may be optimal for
long-term, post-training effectiveness. Included, for ex-
6. Five new members were added to the committee to bolster its
expertise in the new problem areas on its agenda. Michelene Chi, Rob-
ert Christina, James Davis, Eric Eich, and Francis Pirozzolo joined
seven members of the original committee (Bjork, Davison, Hyman,
Landers, Porter, Singer, and Thompson), whose expertise remains ap-
propriate to the committee's new tasks and who were willing to con-
tinue on the committee through the next phase. Bjork replaced Swets as
committee chair, Druckman remains as study director, and Judith
Orasanu is now the committee's liaison with ARI.
ample, are spacing of repetitions during practice, re
stricted feedback on the execution of motor skills
(Schmidt, Young, Swinnen, & Shapiro, 1989), and re.
quiring the learner to perform under conditions of re
stricted sensory input.
Training to optimize performance in special
emotional, physical, and environmental states
Procedures that optimize the initial rate of acquisition
are unlikely to be optimal in terms of improving later
performance under conditions of stress and/or restricted
information. Recent research on state dependencies in
memory (body states, mood states, and environmental
contexts) may have implications for training (Bjork &
Richardson-Klavehn, 1989; Eich, 1989; Smith, 1988),
Training techniques designed in sports psychology to en-
hance performance under pressure may have implica-
tions for army training programs.
Cognitive-motor preparation to perform
under pressure
Beyond such training issues having to do with the ac-
quisition of a skill, there are issues related to performing
at the level one is capable of when it matters. There are
indications that certain preparation strategies (such as
mental rehearsal, or automating pre-performance motor
routines) may prime or stabilize the cognitive motor pro-
grams that underlie skilled performance. Such strategies
may help to induce or maintain bodily states that are
correlated with high performance; recent psychophysio-
logical studies suggest that certain patterns of heart-rate
and EEG changes in the few seconds prior to the execu-
tion of a critical shot or stroke (in golf or archery) are
correlated with better performance (Landers, personal
communication).
Models of expert performance
The potential of modelling experts was suggested by
the committee's prior review of neurolinguistic program-
ming (NLP), by research developments, and by develop-
ments in sports training. In its otherwise fairly negative
evaluation of NLP, the committee found promise in the
importance NLP attributes to decoding an expert's be-
havior as a guide to training the beginner. Research on
the nature of expertise has flourished in recent years
(Chi, Glaser, & Farr, 1988) and may provide a foundation
for training/performance programs. In addition, com-
puter-aided representations of skilled performance have
apparently been used with some success in sports psy-
chology.
"Subliminal'' methods to enhance mental states
As part of recent research activity employing a variety
of non-traditional measures of memory (see the earlier
1:
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10004.7
John A. Swets and Robert A. Bjork
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discussion of learning during sleep) that seem sensitive to
types of learning without awareness ("data-driven
processing"), there is renewed interest in subliminal
jearning (e.g., Jacoby & Whitehouse, in press; Marcel,
1983). While such results suggest a new look at the sub-
liminal-learning issue, a large variety of subliminal tapes
designed to alter attitudes, enhance confidence, reduce
anxieties, and so forth, have had striking success in the
marketplace.
Manipulating mental, emotional, and arousal states
A draft review of the literature on techniques to
change mental states, commissioned by ARI and pre-
pared by J. Brener and S.R Connally, was reviewed by
Druckman and Posner for implications for task perfor-
mance. Research developments in various fields, includ-
ing health psychology, suggest that altered states of
consciousness may affect a variety of physiological pro-
cesses. The converse may be true as well; recent work
suggests that mood states may be altered by influences on
bloodflow that are a consequence of the differing facial
muscular patterns corresponding to various emotional
expressions (Zajonc, Murphy, & Inglehart, 1989). ARI,
motivated by the problem of detecting deception (Hy-
man, 1989), has urged the committee to consider also the
physical manifestations of mental and emotional states.
Career development
A class of techniques designed to improve perfor-
mance through increased self-insight is widely used in
public and private organizations; included are assess-
ment batteries designed to facilitate leadership, interper-
sonal influence skills, team building, and decision mak-
ing. Specific examples are the Myers-Briggs Type
Indicator (Myers & McCaulley, 1985), the Managerial
Grid (Blake & Mouton, 1964), and the Social Styles Pro-
file (Merrill & Reid, 1981). These techniques have con-
siderable appeal to trainers as well as to the trainees be-
cause of high "face validity," but they have been subject
to little rigorous research. To help define the questions,
the committee commissioned Paul Thayer to write a crit-
ical review of the relevant literature.
Part-whole methods to enhance group processes
At its first meeting the continuing committee became
convinced that certain issues of group performance de-
served study. Should the members of a working group be
trained as a team or individually? If team training facili-
tates initial performance, is that advantage offset by
greater disruption when original members of the team
need to be replaced by new members? Should the indi-
viduals in a group be trained in only their task, or should
there be backup training to increase the flexibility of the
group? Current research may not supply definitive an-
swers to these and a number of related questions, but the
issues are important enough to army functioning to be
addressed, if only to clarify the questions and to outline
needed research.
CONCLUSION
Although other arrangements might be workable, we
found that the National Research Council provides an
ideal setting for a study of this sort. The Council was
designed expressly for the purpose, first under the spon-
sorship of the National Academy of Science and now
administered as well by the National Academy of Engi-
neering and the Institute of Medicine. The NAS was
chartered by Congress in 1863; the NRC was established
in 1916. Among the NRC's strengths are that it spans the
scientific and professional disciplines; it benefits from the
prestige of its governing academies; it provides in com-
petent fashion the services required by committee func-
tion; and it follows guidelines to promote thorough and
objective reports, including procedures for proposal and
report review. Committee members are suggested by
broadly based advisers, proposed by a commission's staff
and executive director working with the committee's
chairperson, nominated by the commission, and ap-
pointed by the NRC's chairperson in the interests of com-
petence, relevance, and diversity of viewpoints. They are
asked to verify that they have no conflict of interest and
they serve without financial compensation.
Members of the committee generally regarded their
task as challenging and they demonstrated consistently
that it was engaging. They came to the meetings almost
without exception, made site visits willingly, submitted
draft sections of the report nearly on time, and achieved
consensus in an advised, efficient, and congenial way.
They feel that their training and experience were ade-
quate to the task and they are pleased to recommend the
process to psychologists and scientists in related fields.
The continuing committee can reasonably anticipate that
it will contribute more by steering the army toward prom-
ising new ways to enhance training and performance and
less by saving the Army from investing in ineffective
techniques. It will likely also serve an advisory role for
some specific enhancement projects undertaken in the
army.
A long-term, successful impact of the committee's
work, in both of its phases, is hardly assured. The power
of the human-potential movement in the minds of the
citizenry, as evidenced by its marketplace popularity,
dwarfs the force of mainstream psychology. New Age
techniques are also apparently making substantial in-
roads on the more than $30 billion a year that the Amer-
ican Society for Training and Development estimates to
be spent on formal courses in industry (Wall Street Jour-
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PSYCHOLOGICAL SCIENCE
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Enhancing Human Performance
nal, August 5, 1986). The army, of course, will continue
to have serious needs for performance enhancement and
will continue to be bombarded by strong, new claims for
existing and new techniques. The lack of theoretical and
empirical support for many such techniques does not sti-
fle their ability to capture the imagination of consumers.
Still, the Condon Report of 1968 on unidentified flying
objects was cited recently (Alexander, 1989) as continu-
ing to depress the government's interest in that subject,
and we note that the Condon Committee had nothing
positive to substitute. The continuing challenge to main-
stream psychology will be to translate its findings and
concepts into practical enhancement techniques and to
package those techniques so it can "give psychology
away"-or sell it, for that matter. The committee's ef-
forts, we submit, should be only an installment.
Acknowledgments-This article is based on a study conducted by
the National Research Council for the Army Research Institute and
reported in Druckman and Swets (1988). The authors thank Daniel
Druckman, Edgar M. Johnson, Alvin M. Liberman, Raymond S.
Nickerson, and Jerome E. Singer for comments on a draft of the
article.
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96

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Approved For Release 2001/03/07 / CIA-RDP96-00789R002200640001-7
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