| Sumario: | This paper introduces the substantive and methodological approach of conversation analysis (CA), a rigorous, qualitative method for the study of naturally occurring talk in interaction. It argues that CA can be used to analyze potentially significant linguistic practices during research in parapsychology laboratories. To establish the relevance of CA, three arguments are presented. First, it is observed that the work of a parapsychology laboratory relies on a largely unexamined set of interactional moments. Second, the paper discusses aspects of the methodology of CA, a key feature of which is the use of distinctive transcription techniques. Finally, the paper illustrates the empirical approach of conversation analysis by examining some properties of experimenter-subject interaction during mentation review periods; the data are from ganzfeld experiments conducted at the Koestler Parapsychology Unit during the 1990s. The paper concludes by discussing some methodological and substantive areas in which CA might be of use in parapsychological research. Reprinted by permission of the publisher.
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