24 Facts About James Alcock

James E Alcock was born on 24 December 1942 and is Professor emeritus at York University.

James Alcock is a member of the Editorial Board of The Skeptical Inquirer, and a frequent contributor to the magazine.

James Alcock has been a columnist for Humanist Perspectives Magazine.

The author of several books and peer reviewed journal articles, James Alcock is an amateur magician and a member of the International Brotherhood of Magicians.

James Alcock grew up in an observant Protestant household and regularly went to Sunday school.

James Alcock's mother was "very religious" and his father, though not outwardly observant, "never criticized religion".

James Alcock took part in the show as a volunteer and was asked to interlace his hands.

James Alcock was surprised that at the hypnotist's suggestion he could not separate his hands.

James Alcock then developed an interest in psychology, and subsequently earned a Ph.

James Alcock's research concentrated on the psychology of belief, and he participated in a special research project for the National Academy of Sciences regarding the critical evaluation of parapsychology.

James Alcock was chosen as a fellow of the Canadian Psychological Association for making "a distinguished contribution to the advancement of the science or profession of psychology".

James Alcock is a prominent skeptic and a Fellow and Member of the Executive Council for the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry.

James Alcock sat on a panel discussing current paranormal research with a parapsychologist and a psychic healer.

In 1976, James Alcock attended the organizing conference at which the Committee for the Scientific Investigation of Claims of the Paranormal was founded, and was invited to be a Fellow of CSICOP at that time.

James Alcock was appointed to the Executive Council a few years later.

In October 2004 James Alcock spoke at the World Skeptics Congress in Italy.

James Alcock outlined the history of the modern skeptical movement as begun by CSICOP in April 1976 in Buffalo, NY.

James Alcock has been a featured speaker at CSICon, an annual skeptical conference hosted by the Committee for Skeptical Inquiry, several times.

James Alcock carried out a systematic review of parapsychological research involving random event generators.

James Alcock found several methodological problems that he considered of such a serious nature that one could not have any confidence in the results and conclusions of the various studies.

James Alcock concludes that almost everything that could go wrong with these separate experiments did go wrong.

Bem's response to James Alcock's critique appeared online at the Skeptical Inquirer website and James Alcock replied to these comments in a third article on the same website.

In 2003 James Alcock published Give the Null Hypothesis a Chance: Reasons to Remain Doubtful about the Existence of Psi, in which he claimed that parapsychologists never seem to take seriously the possibility that psi does not exist.

James Alcock's book Belief: What it Means to Believe and Why Our Convictions Are So Compelling is a 638 page expansion on his 1995 article "The Belief Engine," where he wrote, "Our brains and nervous systems constitute a belief-generating machine, a system that evolved to assure not truth, logic, and reason, but survival".