The following query was sent in by Samantha Douglas:

I was just wondering if I could pick your brains about a few aspects of the anomalistic psychology topic for AQA ‘A’.

1. Scientific Fraud- this is no longer specifically named on the specification, is it therefore safe to not cover this anymore or could it possible come under the ‘scientific status’ of the subject.

2. Explanations for and research into exceptional experience- I have plenty of info regarding research into these but nothing on explanations of them. I have found your new spread for magical thinking and superstition invaluable in preparing for that- have you updated your exceptional experience spread at all to include specific explanations?

Like I said, I hope you don’t mind me asking you these questions but sometimes interpreting the specification can be a bit of a nightmare!

My answer:

1. It is safe not to cover it but you’re right it could be used to discuss the scientific status – though always remember that questions are likely to be quite short so students don’t need vast amounts.

2. We are in the process of revising the A2 book – a new edition will be out for September. Meanwhile there are some explanations for exceptional experiences already there e.g. NDEs and OBEs (in the evaluation bits). I would think you could explain psychic healing and mediumship in terms of why people believe. The specification does say ‘research and explanations’ so there are both possibilities and again questions would be no more than 4+6 (I would think).

Cara