About Me
I am a founding member of the University of Edinburgh's Koestler Parapsychology Unit. I was recruited as a Research Assistant by the first Koestler Professor, Robert Morris in 1986, and in 1993 obtained my PhD, on a comparison of performance on extrasensory perception and subliminal perception tasks. I continued as a KPU researcher until 2006, when I was appointed Senior Lecturer in Psychology at Edinburgh University, following the sad death of Bob Morris (2004). In 2016 I was appointed as the second Koestler Chair of Parapsychology, a post from which I retired Fall 2024 (I have applied for Emeritus/Honorary Prof, tbc). The KPU continues as a research group and you can see my past and present KPU activities below.
Research interests. My first degree is in Psychology and I have always naturally been drawn to areas of overlap between psychology and parapsychology. As can be seen from my PA Presidential Address (2005), I have a particular interest in the methodological and conceptual advances that can arise from the challenge of conducting parapsychological research - you might call this meta-science. This work continues parapsychology's long tradition of pioneering advances that have the potential for wider scientific benefit (for an example, see this paper co-authored with Prof Richard Wiseman about the historical and scientific impact of the innovative editorial policy of the European Journal of Parapsychology.) In the same vein, since 2012 I have been working with Jim Kennedy to run a registry for parapsychology studies, which aims to enhance the methodological quality of parapsychological research. Jim and I have published this paper for psychologists, discussing improvements to established study registration practices, based on our experiences running the KPU registry. In addition to my meta-science interests, since 2017 I have also conducted a number of ganzfeld precognition studies (see publications below, with more pending).
Other activities. While I was a salaried University of Edinburgh staff member, I taught parapsychology to honours Psychology students, and supervised PhD students. After retirement, I continue to be a member of the scientific board of the Bial Foundation and the Research Grants Committee of the Society for Psychical Research. I also continue to run the KPU Registry and referee journal submissions. I am a past-president of the PA, and have been a member of the PA program committee for longer than I care to remember. I am PA International Liaison officer for Scotland.
Some recent journal articles:
Pooley, A., Murray, A., & Watt, C. (2023). Understanding the factors at play in the sender-receiver dynamic during the telepathy ganzfeld: A meta-analysis. Journal of Anomalous Experience and Cognition, 3, 1, 42-77.
Watt, C. (2022). On being a (white, middle class) woman in parapsychology. Journal of Anomalistics, 22, 2, 280-285.
Watt, C., Dawson, E., Tullo, A., Pooley, A. & Rice, H. (2020) Testing precognition and altered state of consciousness with selected participants in the ganzfeld. Journal of Parapsychology, 84(1), 21-37.
Wiseman, R., Watt, C. & Kornbrot, D. (2019). Registered reports: an early example and analysis. PeerJ 7:e6232 http://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.6232
Watt, C., & Kennedy, J. E (2015). Lessons from the first two years of operating a study registry. Frontiers in Psychology, 7, 173.
Book: Watt, C. (2016). Parapsychology: A Beginner's Guide. London: Oneworld Publications.