Editing Jessica Utts

{{short description|American statistician}}
'''Jessica Utts''' (born 1952) is a [[Parapsychology|parapsychologist]] and statistics professor at the [[University of California, Irvine]]. She is known for her textbooks on [[statistics]] and her investigation into [[remote viewing]].<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://archived.parapsych.org/members/j_m_utts.html |title=Jessica Utts at the Parapsychological Association |access-date=2014-02-13 |archive-date=2012-05-29 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529181920/http://archived.parapsych.org/members/j_m_utts.html |url-status=dead }}</ref><ref name="Carroll2003">[[Robert Todd Carroll]]. (2003). ''[[The Skeptic's Dictionary|The Skeptic's Dictionary: A Collection of Strange Beliefs, Amusing Deceptions, and Dangerous Delusions]]''. Wiley. pp. 331–333. {{ISBN|0-471-27242-6}}</ref>

== Statistics education ==
In 2003, Utts published an article in ''[[The American Statistician|American Statistician]]'', a journal published by the [[American Statistical Association]], calling for significant changes to collegiate level [[statistics]] education.<ref>[http://jwilson.coe.uga.edu/EMAT6680Fa11/Shaughnessy/LS.STAT6070/Portfolio%20Reflections/Reflection%203.What%20Educated%20Citizens%20Should%20Know%20About%20Statistics%20and%20Probability.pdf What educated citizens should know about statistics and probability] by Jessica Utts. The American Statistician, 57(2), 74–79, 2003.</ref> In the article she argued that [[curricula]] do a fine job of covering the [[Mathematics|mathematical]] side of statistics, but do a poor job of teaching students the skills necessary to properly interpret statistical results in scientific studies.  The argument continues that common errors found in [[Article (publishing)|news article]]s, such as the common misinterpretation that [[correlative]] studies show [[Causality|causation]], would be reduced if there were significant changes made to standard statistics courses.

In 2016, Utts served as the 111th president of the [[American Statistical Association]].<ref>{{cite web |title=Jessica Utts Elected 111th ASA President |date=July 2014 |url=https://magazine.amstat.org/blog/2014/07/01/asaelection2014/ |publisher=American Statistical Association |accessdate=5 July 2020}}</ref>
She is a [[Fellow of the American Statistical Association]], and also a Fellow of the [[Institute of Mathematical Statistics]].<ref>{{citation|url=http://www.imstat.org/awards/honored_fellows.htm|title=Honored Fellows|publisher=Institute of Mathematical Statistics|accessdate=2017-11-24|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20140302125855/http://www.imstat.org/awards/honored_fellows.htm|archive-date=2014-03-02|url-status=dead}}</ref>

== Investigation of remote viewing ==

In 1995, the [[American Institutes for Research]] (AIR) appointed a panel consisting primarily of Utts and [[Ray Hyman]] to evaluate a project investigating [[remote viewing]] for [[espionage]] applications, the [[Stargate Project (U.S. Army unit)|Stargate Project]],<ref name="CIA_Utts">{{cite web|url=https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00791r000100030045-6|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160925001022/https://www.cia.gov/library/readingroom/document/cia-rdp96-00791r000100030045-6|url-status=dead|archive-date=September 25, 2016|title=CURRICULUM VITAE – JESSICA UTTS|date=24 May 1995|publisher=CIA Library|accessdate=18 January 2017}}</ref> which was funded by the [[Central Intelligence Agency]] and [[Defense Intelligence Agency]], and carried out initially by [[SRI International|Stanford Research Institute]] and subsequently by [[Science Applications International Corporation|SAIC]].<ref name="Marks 2000">[[David Marks (psychologist)|David Marks]]; Richard Kammann. (2000). ''[[The Psychology of the Psychic]]''. Prometheus Books. pp. 71–74. {{ISBN|1-57392-798-8}}</ref>

A report by Utts<ref>{{cite journal |last1=Utts |first1=Jessica |title=An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning |journal=Journal of Parapsychology |date=2018 |volume=82 |issue=Suppl |pages=118–146 |doi=10.30891/jopar.2018S.01.10 |s2cid=3664988 |url=https://www.parapsychologypress.org/jp-82-s-118-146 |access-date=19 April 2022|doi-access=free }}</ref> claimed the results were evidence of psychic functioning, however Hyman in his report argued Utts' conclusion that ESP had been proven to exist, especially precognition, was premature and the findings had not been independently replicated.<ref>[http://www.mceagle.com/remote-viewing/refs/science/air/hyman.html Evaluation of a Program on Anomalous Mental Phenomena] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170616174455/http://mceagle.com/remote-viewing/refs/science/air/hyman.html |date=2017-06-16 }} by [[Ray Hyman]].</ref> According to Hyman "the overwhelming amount of data generated by the viewers is vague, general, and way off target. The few apparent hits are just what we would expect if nothing other than reasonable guessing and subjective validation are operating."<ref>{{cite web |author=Ray Hyman |url=http://www.csicop.org/si/show/evidence_for_psychic_functioning_claims_vs._reality |year=2008 |title=The Evidence for Psychic Functioning: Claims vs. Reality |publisher=Csicop.org |accessdate=2014-07-12 |author-link=Ray Hyman |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100709201315/http://www.csicop.org/si/show/evidence_for_psychic_functioning_claims_vs._reality |archive-date=2010-07-09 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Funding for the project was stopped after these reports were issued. Jessica Utts also co-authored papers with the parapsychologist Edwin May, who took over Stargate in 1985.<ref name="Carroll2003"/> The psychologist [[David Marks (psychologist)|David Marks]] noted that because Utts had published papers with May "she was not independent of the research team. Her appointment to the review panel is puzzling; an evaluation is likely to be less than partial when an evaluator is not independent of the program under investigation."<ref name="Marks 2000"/>

The Stargate Project was terminated in 1995 with the conclusion that it was never useful in any intelligence operation. The information was vague and included a lot of irrelevant and erroneous data. There was also reason to suspect that the research managers had adjusted their project reports to fit the known background cues.<ref>[https://web.archive.org/web/20170113100257/http://www.lfr.org/lfr/csl/library/AirReport.pdf An Evaluation of Remote Viewing: Research and Applications] by Mumford, Rose and Goslin</ref>

Utts is on the executive board of the International Remote Viewing Association (IRVA).<ref>[http://irva.org/About.html "About IRVA"] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070916011107/http://www.irva.org/About.html |date=2007-09-16 }}. International Remote Viewing Association.</ref>

== Publications ==

===Books===
* ''Seeing Through Statistics, 3rd edition'' (2005) – The use of statistical methods to solve real world problems, and to gain understanding from the application of statistics in addition to simply calculating them.
* ''Mind On Statistics, 4th edition'' (2012), with R.F. Heckard – Textbook for an introductory statistics course, with emphasis on understanding the use of statistics in everyday life.

===Papers===
*Utts, J. (1988). ''Successful replication versus statistical significance''. Journal of Parapsychology, 52(4): 305–320. 
*Radin, D. and J. Utts. (1989). ''Experiments investigating the influence of intention on random and pseudorandom events''. Journal of Scientific Exploration, 3(1): 65–79. 
*Utts, J. (1989). ''Randomness and randomization tests: A reply to Gilmore''. Journal of Parapsychology, 53(4): 345–351. 
*May, E. C., J. M. Utts, B. S. Humphrey, W. Luke, T.J. Frivold, and V. V. Trask. (1990). ''Advances in Remote Viewing'', Journal of Parapsychology, 54(3), 193–228. 
*Hansen G. P., J. M. Utts, and B. Markwick. (1992). ''Critique of the PEAR remote viewing experiments''. Journal of Parapsychology, 56(2), 97–113. 
*Utts, J. (1993). ''Analyzing free-response data—a progress report''. In ''PSI Research Methodology—A Reexamination'', ed. L. Coly and J. D. S. McMahon, Parapsychology Foundation, New York, 71–83.
*Utts, J. (2018). ''An Assessment of the Evidence for Psychic Functioning''. Journal of Parapsychology, 82: 118–146.

==References==
{{reflist}}

==Further reading==
*[[Ray Hyman]]. (1991). [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2245733?uid=3738032&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21104936070147 ''Replication and Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology: Comment'']. Statistical Science Vol. 6, No. 4. pp.&nbsp;389–392.
*[[Robert L. Morris]]. (1991). [https://www.jstor.org/discover/10.2307/2245734?uid=3738032&uid=2129&uid=2&uid=70&uid=4&sid=21104936070147 ''Replication and Meta-Analysis in Parapsychology: Comment'']. Statistical Science Vol. 6, No. 4. pp.&nbsp;393–395.

== External links ==
* [http://www.ics.uci.edu/~jutts/ Jessica Utts's UC Irvine page]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20041010112346/http://anson.ucdavis.edu/~utts/psipapers.html Parapsychology papers by Jessica Utts]

{{American Statistical Association Presidents}}
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Utts, Jessica}}
[[Category:1952 births]]
[[Category:Living people]]
[[Category:American women statisticians]]
[[Category:Fellows of the American Statistical Association]]
[[Category:Fellows of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics]]
[[Category:American parapsychologists]]
[[Category:People from Davis, California]]
[[Category:Remote viewing]]
[[Category:University of California, Davis faculty]]
[[Category:University of California, Irvine faculty]]
[[Category:Presidents of the American Statistical Association]]
[[Category:21st-century American women]]
[[Category:Statistics educators]]