Pre-registration assignment

Pre-registration

Importance of replication in science

1. The process of repeating research to determine the extent to which findings generalize across time and across situations.

2. We work under the understanding that some of our findings may be incorrect (reduce to type 1 and 2 error, but can’t eliminate them entirely under normal circumstances.

3. Open Science Collaboration (2015): Reproducibility is a key requirement of good science, but till what extent does it characterizes current research is unknown.

4. Direct (exact) replication

· Determines whether the results come out the same

· Recreates the scientific methods used in conditions of an earlier study.

5. Conceptual Replication

· Attempts to confirm the previous findings using a different set of specific methods that generally test the same idea.

· Same hypothesis is tested- using a different set of methods and measures.

The Replication Crisis

1. Replicability crisis- reproducibility crisis

2. Methodological crisis- where scientists have found that results of many scientific studies are difficult/impossible to replicate/reproduce on subsequent investigation.

3. Caused- by Journals’ strong preference to publish significant findings (file-drawer effect) and acceptance of a range of analyses.

Openness and System Programs

1. The principles of Open science

· Open data

· Open source

· Open access

· Open Methodology

· Open peer-review

· Open educational resources

Assignment

1. Overall upper word limit is 2000

2. Includes (section word limits)

· Research description- 200 to 300 words

· Hypotheses/ Research question

· Methodology Plan – 750 to 1000 words

· Analysis design – 250 to 500 words

· Ethical design – 150-500 words

Title

1. Working title of your study (same title that will be submitted as your actual project)

2. Title should be specific and informative description of a project.

· APA format (7th edition)

· Name 2 or 3 variables involved, relationship between them being tested (based on causal or a correlational design), and the participant population sampled.

Research Description

1. Content

· Brief of your study

· Some background

· Gap in knowledge which the study is designed to fill

· A brief description of the kind of methods used and the purpose of these methods.

· This section is like an abbreviated introduction to your study up until the hypothesis, entered in the next box.

· The description shouldn’t be longer than the length of an abstract.

· It can shed some light on the context for the purpose study- but great detail is not required here.

· Referencing (optional)

Hypotheses/Research questions

1. List specific, concise and testable hypotheses.

2. State them as a relationship between a hypothetical situation of the real world ( “if taste affects preference”) and the kind of observation that would help confirm that (“then mean preference will be higher or higher concentration of sugar.”)

3. STATE if the hypothesis are directional or non-directional.

4. IF directional- state the direction.

5. Predicted effect is also appropriate here.

6. IF a specific interaction is important to your research, you can list that as a separate hypothesis.

7. IF you don’t have a testable hypothesis due to exploratory nature of your study, OUTLINE your RQ.

8. How will your study further your knowledge of this topic?

Methodology Plan

1. Describe methodology.

2. This will look a lot like a method section written in the future tense.

3. Be CLEAR enough that a reader unfamiliar with your study will understand what you will be doing.

4. Include separate sections for:

· Participants

· population you will sample

· how (students using RPS, online participants recruited via friends, male adults in yoga)

· Consult with supervisor to describe how many participants you will ideally need to recruit.

· Study design (what are the variables? Is it a within-subject design etc)

· Describe the setting and context given to participants in general terms (e.g. “participants will be brought into a lab and told they will be taking part in a taste test.”)

· If it is an experiment, STATE if there are any other variables are manipulated between-participants and how.

· Describe variables that will be compared within-participants or used as dependent measures.

· State how you are measuring them (e.g. using a questionnaire or other instruments) (include sub-headings here)

· The description should flow in a chronological order

· Describe how manipulations can vary between subjects, so we get an idea of what participants will be going through.

· This section can be written in a variety of ways

· The key is for a researcher – be detailed as in necessary given the specifics of their study.

Analysis Plan

1. Describe as well as you are able to prepare the data for analysis and any exclusion criteria.

· For example, you may have a ten-item scale of extraversion that you will average into a measure. You may be acquiring physiological data that your supervisor will help you turn into four indexes of autonomic bodily arousal. As an exclusion criterion, you might exclude participants who answer to a check item that they have failed to understand the vignette they were supposed to read.

2. Statistical model will be used to test each hypothesis?

3. Include- type of model (e.g.- t-test, ANOVA, correlation, multiple regression, chi-square test, etc)

4. Explain what will be included as predictors, outcomes, or covariates.

5. Please specify any interactions or follow-up analyses you anticipate running.

6. If you plan on using any controls/manipulation checks you could mention that here.

7. IF your study will use qualitative methods how will you analyse the data

8. This is perhaps the most important and most complicated question within the preregistration. As with all of the other questions, the key is to provide a specific recipe for analyzing the collected data. Ask yourself: is enough detail provided that someone else could run the same analysis again the same way?

Ethical Plan

1. Which parts of your design require a consideration of ethical issues? Consider the four major areas:

· Consent, right to withdraw, anonymity/confidentiality, and effects on participants.

· Identify any issues your study may have and put in place a plan to deal with these issues.

· Some projects will have very few ethical issues but all will have something that can be anticipated and dealt with.

2. This is not as easy as it may seem. Make sure you consider all the specific ethical concerns raised by your study (even the analysis) and carefully think through solutions at each point.

3. Does your design require deception? Will participants be exposed to stimuli they may find distressing?

Secondary analyses