Citation

The "finger-reading'' effect refers to successful identification by touch of apparently flat target numbers, colours, words, or symbols on paper in conditions where the participant is unable to see, or feel, or have any normal sensory cues to assist tactile identification. Studies of this have been rwming for over a decade in Taiwan. Nearly a quarter of children, after several finger-reading "training sessions," have appeared to be able to determine the identity of targets by means of directly touching a 2-digit number or a complex character varying in 4 different colours printed by an ink printer on p aper. Training procedures developed by Si-Chen Lee appeared to yield exceptional tactile recognition or extrasensory perception via the fingertips of children. However, these results may be unreliable due to a lack of rigorous controls to rule out possible fraud. It is thus not yet safe to assume that parapsychological abilities were in fact successfully measured. In this paper, pilot trials are considered that would develop empirically and assess controls on the finger-reading training processes. Modifications to training procedures are proposed. If the finger-reading effect can be replicated wider robust and credible conditions, then perhaps more research resources could be attracted to investigating the possibility of exceptional and parapsychological finger-reading abilities in children.