ArticleQuarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006)2020
The psychology of experimental psychologists: Overcoming cognitive constraints to improve research: The 47th Sir Frederic Bartlett Lecture.
Article in Quarterly journal of experimental psychology (2006), 2020. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 17 papers, 1 of them a synthesis that pooled it.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
17 citing papers in PubMed, 1 synthesis or guideline pooled it.
- A systematic review and meta-analysis of the relationship between genes and reflexive attention.Frontiers in neuroscience · 2025Pooled it
- Article
- The struggle to make transparency mainstream: initial evidence for a slow uptake of open science practices in PhD theses.Royal Society open science · 2025Article
- Article
- Motivated reasoning and scientific racism in compulsion theory of human addiction: Methodological framework to promote social justice.Addiction biology · 2024Article
- The psychological reality of the learned "p < .05" boundary.Cognitive research: principles and implications · 2024Article
- Is biomedical research self-correcting? Modelling insights on the persistence of spurious science.Royal Society open science · 2024Article
- Inaccuracy in the Scientific Record and Open Postpublication Critique.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2023Article
- Replication concerns in sports and exercise science: a narrative review of selected methodological issues in the field.Royal Society open science · 2022Article
- Illusory Essences: A Bias Holding Back Theorizing in Psychological Science.Perspectives on psychological science : a journal of the Association for Psychological Science · 2022Article
- Protecting against researcher bias in secondary data analysis: challenges and potential solutions.European journal of epidemiology · 2022Article
- Improving the reproducibility of findings by updating research methodology.Quality & quantity · 2022Article
- Quantifying noxious-evoked baseline sensitivity in neonates to optimise analgesic trials.eLife · 2021Observational
- Evidence for preferential attachment: Words that are more well connected in semantic networks are better at acquiring new links in paired-associate learning.Psychonomic bulletin & review · 2020Article
- Reproducible research into human chemical communication by cues and pheromones: learning from psychology's renaissance.Philosophical transactions of the Royal Society of London. Series B, Biological sciences · 2020Review
- Replications in Comparative Cognition: What Should We Expect and How Can We Improve?Animal behavior and cognition · 2020Article
- Statistical Significance Filtering Overestimates Effects and Impedes Falsification: A Critique of.Frontiers in psychology · 2020Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
1 author.
Funding
Abstract
Like many other areas of science, experimental psychology is affected by a "replication crisis" that is causing concern in many fields of research. Approaches to tackling this crisis include better training in statistical methods, greater transparency and openness, and changes to the incentives created by funding agencies, journals, and institutions. Here, I argue that if proposed solutions are to be effective, we also need to take into account human cognitive constraints that can distort all stages of the research process, including design and execution of experiments, analysis of data, and writing up findings for publication. I focus specifically on cognitive schemata in perception and memory, confirmation bias, systematic misunderstanding of statistics, and asymmetry in moral judgements of errors of commission and omission. Finally, I consider methods that may help mitigate the effect of cognitive constraints: better training, including use of simulations to overcome statistical misunderstanding; specific programmes directed at inoculating against cognitive biases; adoption of Registered Reports to encourage more critical reflection in planning studies; and using methods such as triangulation and "pre mortem" evaluation of study design to foster a culture of dialogue and criticism.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What Socratic holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the Socratic graph.