Originally Posted by
Robin
This would be consistent with, for example, a mounting anticipation effect after a series of calm-inducing photos and a slight desensitisation during emotion-provoking photos.
Do you mean that the "anticipation" effect only applies to when a "streak" is broken? (...a streak of neutral pictures broken by an overdue emotional one, or a streak of emotional ones broken by an overdue neutral one...) In other words, do you mean that there was no apparent effect when the two types of picture had been alternating without streaks, and no apparent effect in the middle of a streak?
If so, then this reminds me of the rule about gamblers thinking that a streak makes one outcome more or less likely the next time than it would otherwise be, such as a streak of black results at a roulette meaning that the next spin is especially likely to get a red result.
If that's the same mental phenomenon, then there are some other results that should be predictable from this. One is that the apparent anticipation effect should get stronger the longer the streak is, up to a point, after which the subject might just get used to it and lose the expectation of a break in the streak. Another is that gamblers, especially addicts, should show a stronger apparent anticipation effect than non-gamblers. (Of course, this wouldn't be testing whether anything "paranormal" was happening; it would just test whether we're dealing with one single "normal" bit of psychology or neurology, or two separate "normal" ones.)