A poor diet has severe detrimental health effects, and attempts to reduce caloric intake often prove unsuccessful. Unhealthy foods, high in fat, sugar, and salt tend to be highly appetitive, and can undermine individuals’ ability to refrain themselves from consuming them. Computerized cognitive retraining techniques have shown promise in curbing the intake of unhealthy foods and promoting weight loss. However, in real-world scenarios, adherence to such retraining programs can be suboptimal, potentially diminishing their effectiveness.

 

In the present study, Maclellan et al. (2023) aim to investigate whether the incorporation of gamified elements, transforming the cognitive retraining task into a game-like experience, can enhance adherence and overall intervention effectiveness by boosting engagement and motivation. These findings could deepen our understanding of the mechanisms through which cognitive retraining mitigates caloric intake and pave the way for more compelling and successful interventions.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over one round of review and revision. Based on detailed evaluations by two expert reviewers, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and therefore awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/jspf3 (under temporary private embargo)

Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA.
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
 

Frontotemporal dementia (FTD) refers to a range of neurodegenerative diseases involving progressive deterioration of frontal and temporal brain networks. This scoping review protocol by Carneiro et al. (2024) promises to make a valuable contribution to the conceptualization of dysregulated interoception (the ability to sense and interpret internal bodily signals) and allostasis (anticipation and adjustment of energy use in response to environmental demands) in the context of FTD. The work also has broader implications, potentially offering key insights into the interplay between sensory and regulatory signals, which hold relevance not only for dementia but also for other mental disorders characterized by maladaptive allostatic adaptations, such as addiction. This broader applicability underscores the potential impact of the review across multiple domains of mental health research.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review. Based on ​detailed responses to reviewers’ and the recommender’s comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and therefore awarded in-principle acceptance.​​​
 
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/skebz
 
Level of bias control achieved: Level 2. At least some data/evidence that will be used to answer the research question has been accessed and partially observed by the authors, but the authors certify that they have not yet observed the key variables within the data that will be used to answer the research question.
 
List of eligible PCI-RR-friendly journals:

 

• Cortex
• In&Vertebrates
• Peer Community Journal
• PeerJ
• Royal Society Open Science
• Studia Psychologica

 
References

Carneiro, F., Hazelton, J. L., Campos, C., Ibáñez, A., & Ferreira-Santos, F. (2024). Allostatic interoception in frontotemporal dementia: a scoping review protocol. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/skebz

This Stage 1 registered report by Szecsi et al. (2024) seeks to clarify whether individuals' economic conditions moderate how scarcity cues affect their attentional performance. This idea has been previously explored: Here, the authors aim to clarify understanding of the how scarcity cues affect cognition by studying a large and diverse Hungarian sample with improved experimental methods.

 

Specifically, while it has been previously reported that financially less well-off individuals' are differentially affected by finance-related stimuli (e.g. Shah et al., 2018), Szecsi et al. (2024) argue that prior studies have used small samples with insufficient consideration of potentially important demographic variables. Therefore, the generalizability of prior studies might be lacking.

 

Second, Szecsi et al. (2024) aim to conduct a more realistic experiment by asking participants to free-associate in response to financial scarcity-related cues, whereas prior studies have often focused on simply querying for rating responses, which might not sufficiently engage the related cognitive mechanisms that could be most affected.

 

In the proposed study, then, the authors will rigorously test whether financially less well-off individuals have lower attentional performance while experiencing scarcity-related cues than individuals who are financially better off, and that attentional performance does not differ while experiencing non-scarcity related cues. Ultimately, Szecsi et al. propose to shed light on theories of scarcity-related cognition that posit overall decrements in attentional performance irrespective of individuals' financial status.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript was initially reviewed by two experts in the area, who both recommended several improvements to the study. The authors then thoroughly revised their write-up and protocol, and the two reviewers were satisfied with the substance of these revisions. Based on these evaluations, the recommender judged that the Stage 1 criteria were met and awarded in-principle acceptance. There were remaining editorial clarifications and suggestions which the authors can incorporate in their eventual Stage 2 report.

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/3zdyb
 
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA.
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
 

• Advances in Cognitive Psychology
• Collabra: Psychology
• Experimental Psychology
• Journal of Cognition
• Peer Community Journal
• PeerJ
• Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice
• Royal Society Open Science
• Studia Psychologica
• Swiss Psychology Open

 

 

1. Shah, A. K., Zhao, J., Mullainathan, S., & Shafir, E. (2018). Money in the mental lives of the poor. Social Cognition, 36, 4-19. https://doi.org/10.1521/soco.2018.36.1.4

 

2. Szecsi, P., Bognar, M., & Szaszi, B., (2024). Do Scarcity-Related Cues Affect the Sustained Attentional Performance of the Poor and the Rich Differently? In principle acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/3zdyb

How are the thousands of existing, and yet to be created, psychological measurement instruments related, and how reliable are they? Here, Hommel and Arslan (2025) trained a language model--SurveyBot3000--to provide answers to these questions efficiently and without human intervention.

 

In their Stage 1 submission, the authors described the training and pilot validation of a statistical model whose inputs are psychological measurement items or scales, and outputs are the interrelationships between the items and scales, and their reliabilities. The pilot results were promising: SurveyBot3000's predicted inter-scale correlations were strongly associated with empirical correlations from existing human data.

 

In this Stage 2 report, the authors further examined the model's performance and validity. In accordance with their Stage 1 plans, they collected new data from 450 demographically diverse participants, and tested the model's performance fully out of sample. The model's item-to-item correlations correlated at r=.59 with corresponding item-to-item correlations from human participants. The scale-to-scale correlations were even more accurate at r=.83, indicating reasonable performance. Nevertheless, the authors remain justifiably cautious in their recommendation that the "synthetic estimates can guide an investigation but need to be followed up by human researchers with human data."

 

The authors documented all deviations between Stage 2 execution and Stage 1 plans in extensive online supplements. These supplements also addressed other potential issues, such as the potential for data leakage (finding the results in the training data) and robustness of results across different exclusion criteria.

 

The authors' proposed psychometric approach and tool, which is freely available as an online app, could prove valuable for researchers either looking to use or adapt existing scales or items, or when developing new scales or items. More generally, these results add to the growing literature on human-AI research collaboration and highlight a practical application of these tools that remain novel to many researchers in the field. As such, this Stage 2 report and SurveyBot3000 promise to contribute positively to the field.

 

The Stage 2 report was evaluated by two reviewers who also reviewed the Stage 1 report, and a new expert in the field. On aggregate, the reviewers' comments were helpful but relatively minor; the authors improved their work in a resubmission, and the recommender judged accordingly that the manuscript met the Stage  2 criteria for recommendation.

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/2c8hf
 
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that was used to answer the research question was generated until after IPA.
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
 

References
 
Hommel, B. E. & Arslan, R. C. (2025). Language models accurately infer correlations between psychological items and scales from text alone [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/kjuce_v4

 

Mind-wandering broadly refers to the phenomenon by which a person's thoughts are directed towards internally generated states as opposed to being directed towards those that are task-relevant. It has been proposed that mind-wandering and cognitive control are supported by overlapping neural systems. While neuroimaging work has implicated prefrontal cortex in both mind-wandering and cognitive control, studies testing its causal role using transcranial direct current stimulation (tDCS) have been inconclusive.

 

In this study, Rasmussen and colleagues will test whether the effects of prefrontal cortex tDCS on mind-wandering are mediated by dopaminergic availablility, which is known to be important for cognitive control. Using noninvasive brain stimuluation (prefrontal cortex tDCS vs sham) and a pharmacological intervention (levodopa vs. placebo), the authors will test for a causal role of both prefrontal cortex and dopamine availability in mind-wandering, and whether dopamine availability alters the effect of tDCS on mind-wandering.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and therefore awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/ujp7e
 
Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA. 
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
 

• Advances in Cognitive Psychology
• Brain and Neuroscience Advances
• Cortex
• Imaging Neuroscience
• NeuroImage: Reports
• Peer Community Journal
• PeerJ
• Psychology of Consciousness: Theory, Research, and Practice
• Royal Society Open Science
• Studia Psychologica

 

 

1. Rasmussen, T., Dux, P. E. & Filmer, H. (2024). On the neural substrates of mind wandering and dynamic thought: A drug and brain stimulation study. In principle acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/ujp7e