Replication and generalization

Rigorous, robust replication and generalization studies present a significant investment into the quality of the research record, the foundation on which new research is built. Communications Psychology and the Human Behaviour Team at Nature Communications are inviting submissions of replication studies in psychology and the human behavioural sciences.

Most psychological measures are used only once or twice. This proliferation and variability threaten the credibility of research. The Standardisation Of BEhavior Research (SOBER) guidelines aim to ensure that psychological measures are standardised and, unlike toothbrushes, reused by others.

Korbmacher and colleagues from the FORRT project discuss how the last decade can be seen as a credibility revolution for psychological science, benefitting from structural, procedural and community-driven changes.

Lack of information on authors’ contribution to specific aspects of a study hampers reproducibility and replicability. Here, the authors propose a new, easily implemented reporting system to clarify contributor roles in the Methods section of an article.

This Registered Report replicates the finding that not checking the personal cost of helping signals trustworthiness. However, in a third-party punishment setup, avoidance of cost-checking only increased trustworthiness in those who also do not punish.

In contrast to recent findings, a replication study shows no effect of transcranial direct current stimulation on visual working memory.

Reliability of biomarkers is key to their relevance. Out-of-sample generalizability of brain-behavior associations in attention problems and aggression/rule-breaking within the ABCD dataset is high, but generalization to Generation R Study data is limited.

Replicating a finding previously established in German-speaking and English-speaking cohorts, Norwegian-speaking participants likewise form a bimodal distribution of high synchronizers and low synchronizers.

Across a sample of 1,600 individuals spanning 6 to 59 years of age, common saliency models of visual attention predict women’s and young adult’s fixations better than the gaze behaviour of other groups.

Leveraging on large-scale data collection through a smartphone app, Donegan et al show that the association between model-based planning and compulsivity can be estimated with as few as 25 trials

Goal-directed cognition (executive function) is thought to develop through adolescence. Here, the authors find evidence across multiple datasets and measures that executive function develops until 18–20 years old.

A German version of the Interoceptive Accuracy Scale shows similar psychometric properties to the original English version; interoceptive accuracy is negatively related to anxiety, depressive, and somatoform symptoms as well as neurotic traits.