The psychology of experimental psychologists: Overcoming cognitive constraints to improve research

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy Vera Margaret Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Study Design ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Cognitive Schemata ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
Replication Crisis

Experimental psychology is affected by a "replication crisis" that is causing concern in many areas of science. 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 need also to take into account people's cognitive constraints that can distort all stages of the research process: designing and executing experiments, analysing 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 effects of cognitive constraints: better training, including use of simulations to overcome statistical misunderstanding, specific programs 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 make a culture of criticism more acceptable.

scholarly journals The psychology of experimental psychologists: Overcoming cognitive constraints to improve research: The 47th Sir Frederic Bartlett Lecture

2019 ◽  
Vol 73 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-19 ◽  
Author(s):  
Dorothy VM Bishop
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Methods ◽  
Study Design ◽  
Experimental Psychology ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Cognitive Schemata ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
Replication Crisis

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.

scholarly journals A Bibliometric Analysis of Behavioral Finance and Behavioral Accounting

2021 ◽  
Vol 24 (2) ◽  
pp. 198-230
Author(s):  
Bharati Singh
Keyword(s):  
Bibliometric Analysis ◽  
Behavioral Finance ◽  
Financial Literacy ◽  
Cognitive Biases ◽  
Research Work ◽  
Behavioral Accounting ◽  
Cognitive Constraints ◽  
Vos Viewer ◽  
Emerging Themes ◽  
And Performance

This paper presents a bibliometric analysis of relevant publications in the field of behavioral finance and behavioral accounting. The analysis shows that the emerging themes of research in recent years in behavioral finance is on investors’ sentiment, social media, investors’ attention, and financial literacy. In the field of behavioral accounting, biases such as  overconfidence, framing effects or cognitive constraints on information processing, have been explored in greater detail. Other than cognitive biases, this field includes studies such as behavioral tax, organizational ecology, and performance evaluative style of organization, among others. Interestingly, our analysis suggests that research in behavioral accounting is comparatively underdeveloped than research in behavioral finance. This bibliometric analysis has been extended by network analysis using, “Visualization of similarities, (VOS) viewer” software. Using the themes generated here the direction for future scope of research work has been discussed.

scholarly journals Reporting Standards for Clinical and Translational Research

2019 ◽  
pp. 69-73
Author(s):  
Fengyu Zhang ◽  
Claude Hughes
Keyword(s):  
Clinical Research ◽  
Study Design ◽  
Repeated Measurements ◽  
Sufficient Information ◽  
Reporting Standards ◽  
Preclinical Research ◽  
Study Protocols ◽  
Real World Evidence ◽  
Funding Agencies ◽  
Rigorous Study

Transparency in reporting the results of clinical and preclinical research is critical for unbiased publications. Funding agencies, publishers, and regulators have the responsibility to advocate and implement reporting standards for rigorous design. While individual study protocols may have included these standards, the items reported in the respective publications have often been inconsistent or lack transparency. This editorial intends to provide some specific guidelines for reporting results of clinical research with standards required for rigorous study design. We recommend that reporting clinical research should include sufficient information on study design and analysis plan that contains data processing, quality assurance, and appropriate methods used for rigorous statistical analysis or modeling. Any discrepancy between publications and original study design should be disclosed and discussed. Additionally, recent advances in the analysis of outcome with repeated measurements and statistical modeling should be employed to obtain unbiased estimates. Finally, we briefly discuss some issues reporting real-world evidence in clinical research.

The Research Audit Trail: Methodological Guidance for Application in Practice

2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Marian Carcary
Keyword(s):  
Qualitative Research ◽  
Critical Reflection ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Qualitative Inquiry ◽  
Research Project ◽  
Information Systems Management ◽  
Audit Trail ◽  
Research Outcomes ◽  
Time Period ◽  
Research Findings

The merits of qualitative research remain an issue of ongoing debate and investigation. Qualitative researchers emphasise issues such as credibility, dependability, and transferability in demonstrating the trustworthiness of their research outcomes. This refers to the extent to which the research outcomes are conceptually sound and serves as the basis for enabling other researchers to assess their value. Carcary (2009) proposed trustworthiness in qualitative inquiry could be established through developing a physical and intellectual research audit trail – a strategy that involves maintaining an audit of all key stages and theoretical, methodological, and analytical decisions, as well as documenting how a researcher’s thinking evolves throughout a research project. Since 2009, this publication has been cited in greater than 600 studies. The current paper provides an analysis of the use and value of the research audit trail, based on the author’s application of this strategy across diverse research projects in the field of Information Systems management over a ten year time period. Based on a critical reflection on insights gained through these projects, this paper provides an in‑depth discussion of a series of guidelines for developing and applying the research audit trail in practice. These guidelines advance existing thinking and provide practical recommendations in relation to maintaining a research audit trail throughout a research project. Based on these guidelines and the core issues that should be covered at a physical and intellectual research audit trail level, a checklist that can be tailored to each project’s context is provided to support novice researchers and those who are new to the research audit trail strategy. As such, this paper demonstrates commitment to rigor in qualitative research. It provides a practical contribution in terms of advancing guidelines and providing a supporting checklist for ensuring the quality and transparency of theoretical, methodological, and analytical processes in qualitative inquiry. Embedding these guidelines throughout the research process will promote critical reflection among researchers across all stages of qualitative research and, in tracing through the researcher’s logic, will provide the basis for enabling other researchers to independently assess whether the research findings can serve as a platform for further investigation.

scholarly journals Creating Space for Youth Voice: Implications of Youth Disclosure Experiences for Youth-Centered Research

2020 ◽  
Vol 19 ◽  
pp. 160940692095897
Author(s):  
Roberta Lynn Woodgate ◽  
Pauline Tennent ◽  
Sarah Barriage
Keyword(s):  
Chronic Illness ◽  
Everyday Life ◽  
Research Program ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Youth Voice ◽  
Research Context ◽  
Funding Agencies

This paper examines youth’s disclosure experiences within the context of chronic illness, drawing on examples from IN•GAUGE, an on-going research program led by Dr. Roberta L. Woodgate. Youth’s descriptions of their disclosure experiences provide valuable insights into the ways in which they use their voice in everyday life. This examination of the disclosure experiences of youth offers a lens through which the concept of youth voice in the research process can be understood and youth’s agency foregrounded. We present implications for researchers, ethics boards, funding agencies, and others who engage in youth-centered research, and offer alternative terminology to use in characterizing the elicitation and dissemination of youth voice in the research process. We contend that conceptualizing such efforts as giving youth voice has the potential to discredit the significant agency and autonomy that youth demonstrate in sharing their stories, perspectives, and opinions within the research context. We advocate for the adoption of the phrase of providing or creating space for youth voice, as one alternative to the phrase giving youth voice

scholarly journals Positive Thinking Schools: Projects From Teachers

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Çağla Gür ◽  
Şerife Özbiler ◽  
Başak Eser ◽  
Hüseyin Göksu ◽  
Şahin Karasalih
Keyword(s):  
Study Design ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Research Process ◽  
Study Group ◽  
Positive Thinking ◽  
Subjective Well Being ◽  
Application Process ◽  
Case Study Design ◽  
Second Stage

This study was carried out within the scope of the Art of Happiness, Positive Thinking, and Subjective Well-Being Project. Within the scope of the project, 8-session pre-training was provided to teachers to inform them on the scope of positive thinking and in order to support their subjective well-being. Within the scope of positive thinking applications at schools, which formed the second stage of the project, teachers developed and applied their own projects at their schools. In the study, teachers' views on the scope of the projects they applied at schools and the project application process were analyzed. As the study design, the case study design was applied. The study group consisted of 28 voluntary teachers who received positive thinking training in the first stage of the project and were entitled to get a certificate of achievement. Within the scope of the study, teachers planned their projects and reported on the process. In addition, they kept researcher diaries regarding their applications and noted down their observations. In the research process, 28 teachers at 15 different schools developed and applied 17 different projects. The teachers' views were analyzed in the context of interviews, reports, and diaries. In the study, teachers' observations and evaluations regarding positive thinking education realized in the COVID-19 process were discussed.

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