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Latest recommendations
| Id | Title * | Authors * | Abstract * | Picture | Thematic fields * ▼ | Recommender | Reviewers | Submission date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
Evaluating the Pedagogical Effectiveness of Study Preregistration in the Undergraduate DissertationIncorporating open research practices into the undergraduate curriculum increases understanding of such practicesRecommended by Corina Logan based on reviews by Kelsey McCune, Neil Lewis, Jr., Lisa Spitzer and 1 anonymous reviewer
In a time when open research practices are becoming more widely used to combat questionable research practices (QRPs) in academia, this Registered Report by Pownall and colleagues (2023) empirically investigated the practice of preregistering study plans, which allows us to better understand to what degree such practices increase awareness of QRPs and whether experience with preregistration helps reduce engagement in QRPs. This investigation is timely because results from these kinds of studies are only recently becoming available and the conclusions are providing evidence that open research practices can improve research quality and reliability (e.g., Soderberg et al. 2021, Chambers & Tzavella 2022). The authors crucially focused on the effect of preregistering the undergraduate senior thesis (of psychology students in the UK), which is a key stage in the development of an academic.
Pownall and colleagues found that preregistration did not affect attitudes toward QRPs, but it did improve student understanding of open research practices. Using exploratory analyses, they additionally found that those who preregistered were those students who reported that they had more opportunity, motivation, and greater capability. This shows how important it is to incorporate the teaching of open research practices such that students can increase their capability, motivation, and opportunity to pursue such practices, whether it is preregistration or other practices that are better known to reduce QRPs (such as registered reports; Krypotos et al. 2022).
After four rounds of review and revisions, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria and awarded a positive recommendation.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/9hjbw
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
1. Chambers C. D. & Tzavella, L. (2022). The past, present, and future of Registered Reports. Nature Human Behaviour, 6, 29-42. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01193-7
2. Krypotos, A. M., Mertens, G., Klugkist, I., & Engelhard, I. M. (2022). Preregistration: Definition, advantages, disadvantages, and how it can help against questionable research practices. In Avoiding Questionable Research Practices in Applied Psychology (pp. 343-357). Cham: Springer International Publishing.
3. Pownall, M., Pennington, C. R., Norris, E., Juanchich, M., Smaile, D., Russell, S., Gooch, D., Rhys Evans, T., Persson, S., Mak, M. H. C., Tzavella, L., Monk, R., Gough, T., Benwell, C. S. Y., Elsherif, M., Farran, E., Gallagher-Mitchell, T., Kendrick, L. T., Bahnmueller, J., Nordmann, E., Zaneva, M., Gilligan-Lee, K., Bazhydai, M., Jones, A., Sedgmond, J., Holzleitner, I., Reynolds, J., Moss, J., Farrelly, D., Parker, A. J. & Clark, K. (2023). Evaluating the pedagogical effectiveness of study preregistration in the undergraduate dissertation [Stage 2 Registered Report], acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://psyarxiv.com/xg2ah
4. Soderberg C. K., Errington T. M., Schiavone S. R., Bottesini J., Thorn F. S., Vazire S., Esterling K. M. & Nosek B. A. (2021) Initial evidence of research quality of registered reports compared with the standard publishing model. Nature Human Behaviour, 5, 990–997. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41562-021-01142-4
| Evaluating the Pedagogical Effectiveness of Study Preregistration in the Undergraduate Dissertation | Madeleine Pownall, Charlotte R. Pennington, Emma Norris, Marie Juanchich, David Smaile, Sophie Russell, Debbie Gooch, Thomas Rhys Evans, Sofia Persson, Matthew HC Mak, Loukia Tzavella, Rebecca Monk, Thomas Gough, Christopher SY Benwell, Mahmoud El... | <p>Research shows that questionable research practices (QRPs) are present in undergraduate final-year dissertation projects. One entry-level Open Science practice proposed to mitigate QRPs is ‘study preregistration’, through which researchers outl... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Corina Logan | 2023-03-25 11:38:54 | |||
09 Jul 2024
STAGE 1
Test-Retest Reliability in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Impact of Analytical Decisions on Individual and Group Estimates in the Monetary Incentive Delay TaskExploring determinants of test-retest reliabilty in fMRIRecommended by Dorothy Bishop based on reviews by Xiangzhen Kong and 2 anonymous reviewers
Functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) has been used to explore brain-behaviour relationships for many years, with proliferation of a wide range of sophisticated analytic procedures. However, rather scant attention has been paid to the reliability of findings. Concerns have been growing following failures to replicate findings in some fields, but it is hard to know how far this is a consequence of underpowered studies, flexible analytic pipelines, or variability within and between participants.
Demidenko et al. (2023) plan a study that will be a major step forward in addressing these issues. They take advantage of the availability of three existing datasets, the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, the Michigan Longitudinal Study, and the Adolescent Risk Behavior Study, which all included a version of the Monetary Incentive Delay task measured in two sessions. This gives ample data for a multiverse analysis, which will consider how within-subject and between-subject variance varies according to four analytic factors: smoothing (5 levels), motion correction (6 levels), task modelling (3 levels) and task contrasts (4 levels). They will also consider how sample size affects estimates of reliability. This will involve a substantial amount of analysis.
The study is essentially focused on estimation, although specific predictions are presented regarding the combinations of factors expected to give optimal reliability. The outcome will be a multiverse of results which will allow us to see how different pipeline decisions for this task affect reliability. In many ways, null results – finding that at least some factors have little effect on reliability – would be a positive finding for the field, as it would mean that we could be more relaxed when selecting an analytic pathway. A more likely outcome, however, is that analytic decisions will affect reliability, and this information can then guide future studies and help develop best practice guidelines. As one reviewer noted, we can’t assume that results from this analysis will generalise to other tasks, but this analysis with a widely-used task is an important step towards better and more consistent methods in fMRI.
The researchers present a fully worked out plan of action, with supporting scripts that have been developed in pilot testing. The Stage 1 manuscript received in-depth evaluation from three expert reviewers and the recommender. 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/nqgeh
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 sufficiently observed the key variables within the data to be able to answer the research questions AND they have taken additional steps to maximise bias control and rigour.
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References 1. Demidenko, M. I., Mumford, J. A., & Poldrack, R. A. (2023). Test-Retest Reliability in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Impact of Analytical Decisions on Individual and Group Estimates in the Monetary Incentive Delay Task. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/nqgeh | Test-Retest Reliability in Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging: Impact of Analytical Decisions on Individual and Group Estimates in the Monetary Incentive Delay Task | Michael I. Demidenko, Jeanette A. Mumford, Russell A. Poldrack | <p>Empirical studies reporting low test-retest reliability of individual neural estimates in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data have resurrected interest among cognitive neuroscientists in methods that may improve reliability in fMR... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Dorothy Bishop | 2023-04-17 22:27:54 | |||
22 Oct 2023
STAGE 1
Michotte's research on perceptual impressions of causality: a pre-registered replication studyGaining confidence in Michotte’s classic studies on the perception of causalityRecommended by Moin Syed based on reviews by Maxine Sherman and 1 anonymous reviewer
Making causal judgements are part of everyday life, whether seeking to understand the action of complex humans or the relations between inanimate objects in our environments. Albert Michotte’s (1963) classic book, The perception of causality, contained an extensive report of experiments demonstrating not only that observers perceive causality of inanimate shapes, but do so in manifold ways, creating different “causal impressions.” This work has been highly influential across psychology and neuroscience.
In the current study, White (2023) proposes a series of experiments to replicate and extend Michotte’s work. Despite the fact that this research is foundational to current work on perception and understanding of causal relations, it has never been subjected to rigorous replication. Moreover, like many research studies from that era, Michotte was sparse on details about methodology and did not rely on statistical analysis. White has proposed an ambitious set of 14 experiments that directly replicate and, in some cases, extend Michotte’s experiments.
The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over three rounds of in-depth review, the first two rounds consisting of detailed comments from two reviewers and the third round consisting of a close read by the recommender. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and was therefore awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/5jx8f
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:
References
1. Michotte, A. (1963). The perception of causality (T. R. Miles & E. Miles, trans.). London: Methuen. (English translation of Michotte, 1954).
2. White, P. A. (2023). Michotte's research on perceptual impressions of causality: A registered replication study. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/5jx8f
| Michotte's research on perceptual impressions of causality: a pre-registered replication study | Peter A. White | <p> Michotte (1946/1954/1963) showed that visual impressions of causality can occur in perception of simple animations of moving geometrical objects. In the launching effect, one object is perceived as maki... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Moin Syed | 2023-05-03 13:04:00 | |||
11 Sep 2023
STAGE 1
Finding the right words to evaluate research: An empirical appraisal of eLife’s assessment vocabularyUnderstanding the validity of standardised language in research evaluationRecommended by Sarahanne Miranda Field and Chris Chambers based on reviews by Chris Hartgerink (they/them), Veli-Matti Karhulahti, Štěpán Bahník and Ross Mounce
In 2023, the journal eLife ended the practice of making binary accept/reject decisions following peer review, instead sharing peer review reports (for manuscripts that are peer-reviewed) and brief “eLife assessments” representing the consensus opinions of editors and peer reviewers. As part of these assessments, the journal draws language from a "common vocabulary" to linguistically rank the significance of findings and strength of empirical support for the article's conclusions. In particular, the significance of findings is described using an ordinal scale of terms from "landmark" → "fundamental" → "important" → "valuable" → "useful", while the strength of support is ranked across six descending levels from "exceptional" down to "inadequate".
In the current study, Hardwicke et al. (2023) question the validity of this taxonomy, noting a range of linguistic ambiguities and counterintuitive characteristics that may undermine the communication of research evaluations to readers. Given the centrality of this common vocabulary to the journal's policy, the authors propose a study to explore whether the language used in the eLife assessments will be interpreted as intended by readers. Using a repeated-measures experimental design, they will tackle three aims: first, to understand the extent to which people share similar interpretations of phrases used to describe scientific research; second, to reveal the extent to which people’s implicit ranking of phrases used to describe scientific research aligns with each other and with the intended ranking; and third, to test whether phrases used to describe scientific research have overlapping interpretations. The proposed study has the potential to make a useful contribution to metascience, as well as being a valuable source of information for other journals potentially interested in following the novel path made by eLife.
The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over one round 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/mkbtp
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:
References
1. Hardwicke, T. E., Schiavone, S., Clarke, B. & Vazire, S. (2023). Finding the right words to evaluate research: An empirical appraisal of eLife’s assessment vocabulary. In principle acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/mkbtp | Finding the right words to evaluate research: An empirical appraisal of eLife’s assessment vocabulary | Tom E. Hardwicke, Sarah Schiavone, Beth Clarke, Simine Vazire | <p>The journal eLife recently announced that it would abandon binary ‘accept/reject’ decisions and instead focus on sharing both peer review reports and short “eLife assessments” representing the consensus opinions of editors and peer reviewers. F... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Sarahanne Miranda Field | 2023-06-16 12:11:14 | |||
07 Mar 2025
STAGE 1
On the neural substrates of mind wandering and dynamic thought: A drug and brain stimulation studyDoes dopamine availability influence the effect of brain stimulation on mind-wandering?Recommended by Maxine Sherman based on reviews by Chris Chambers, Jonathan Smallwood and 1 anonymous reviewer
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: References
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
| On the neural substrates of mind wandering and dynamic thought: A drug and brain stimulation study | Tara Rasmussen, Paul E. Dux and Hannah Filmer | <p>The impact of mind wandering on our daily lives ranges from diminishing productivity, to facilitating creativity and problem solving. There is evidence that distinct internal thought types can be modulated by transcranial direct current stimula... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Maxine Sherman | Jonathan Smallwood, Chris Chambers, Anonymous | 2023-11-08 05:11:42 | ||
The importance of conceptual knowledge when becoming familiar with faces during naturalistic viewingA registered test of the role of contextual information in perceptual learning of facesRecommended by Robert McIntosh based on reviews by Haiyang Jin
When we familiarise with new faces over repeated exposures, it is generally in situations that have meaning for us. Seeing a face more often tends to go along with learning more about the person, and their likely contexts and actions. In this Registered Report, Noad and Andrews (2024) tested whether meaningful context during exposure improves the consolidation of faces into long-term memory. Participants were shown video clips from the TV series Life on Mars, either in their original chronological sequence, which provides meaningful context, or in a scrambled sequence. It was expected that the original sequence would provide a better conceptual understanding, and this was confirmed by free recall and structured question tests. Face recognition memory was tested with images of the actor from the original clips (‘in show’) and the same actor from another show (‘out-of-show’), to test whether memory was modulated by the similarity of appearance to that at encoding. Face recognition was tested immediately after exposure and after four weeks, to allow time for consolidation. As expected, recognition memory was better for participants in the meaningful context condition, and for in-show faces. However, meaningful context did not lead to less forgetting of the faces at the follow up test, even for in-show faces, which did not support the original predictions. An exploratory analysis found that a metric of overlap between pairs of participants’ conceptual understanding was related to overlap in the set of faces they recognised. This relationship was stronger after four weeks, which suggests increased interaction of conceptual knowledge and face recognition after consolidation.
The Stage 2 manuscript was assessed over two rounds of review, and the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria for recommendation.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/8wp6f
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
1. Noad, K. & Andrews, T. J. (2024). The importance of conceptual knowledge when becoming familiar with faces during naturalistic viewing [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/thgrz | The importance of conceptual knowledge when becoming familiar with faces during naturalistic viewing | Kira N. Noad and Timothy J. Andrews | <p>Although the ability to recognise familiar faces is a critical part of everyday life, the process by which a face becomes familiar in the real world is not fully understood. Previous research has focussed on the importance of perceptual experie... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Robert McIntosh | 2024-01-17 16:00:17 | |||
Positive Treatment Effects and High Heterogeneity of Hormonal Contraceptive Use on Women's SexualityThe Causal Effects of Hormonal Contraceptives on Sexuality OutcomesRecommended by Thomas Evans based on reviews by Summer Mengelkoch and 1 anonymous reviewer
Ensuring universal access to sexual and reproductive health and reproductive rights is a global concern, exemplified by goal 5.6 of the Sustainable Development Goals (UN General Assembly, 2015). Whilst the range of contraceptive options have increased, our understanding of the impacts of use for women are inadequate and represent a key barrier to positive change in policies and practices. In particular, we have few consensuses on the expected impacts of hormonal contraceptive use on women's sexuality and wellbeing.
In their Stage 1 Report, Botzet et al. (2023) argued that this inconclusive evidence base could be due to the wide heterogeneity in responses, the impacts of this heterogeneity upon attrition, differences in contraceptive methods and dosage effects, confounders, and the potential for reverse causality. Tackling some of these potential factors, Botzet (2023) planned to explore whether hormonal contraceptive use influences sexuality and well-being outcomes, and whether (and to what extent) the effects vary between women. To achieve this they proposed analysis of longitudinal data from the German Family Panel (PAIRFAM) which included annual waves of data collection, with separate Stage 2 submissions planned to report findings based on sexuality and well-being.
This specific Stage 2 Report, Botzet et al. (2025) focus upon the sexuality-based outcomes of the programme of work and found positive effects of hormonal contraceptives on sexual frequency and sexual satisfaction (but not desired sexual frequency), having controlled for a number of potential confounding variables. However, they also found relatively high heterogeneity for individual treatment effects, suggesting that predicting its effect for any given individual may be difficult. This work is a rigorous starting point for better understanding the impacts of hormonal contraceptives and the possibility for tailored approaches to contraception.
The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated following one round of in-depth review. Based on detailed responses to the reviewers' and recommenders' comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria and therefore awarded a positive recommendation.
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/kj3h2
Level of bias control achieved: Level 3. At least some of the data/evidence that was used to answer the research question existed and was accessible in principle prior to IPA but the authors certify that they did not access any part of that data/evidence until after IPA. List of eligible PCI-RR-friendly journals:
References
1. Botzet, L. J., Rohrer, J. M., Penke, L. & Arslan, R. C. (2023). Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Women's Sexuality and Well-Being: Estimating Treatment Effects and Their Heterogeneity Based on Longitudinal Data [Stage 1]. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/kj3h2
2. Botzet, L. J., Rohrer, J. M., Penke, L. & Arslan, R. C. (2025). Positive Treatment Effects and High Heterogeneity of Hormonal Contraceptive Use on Women's Sexuality [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports.
2. UN General Assembly (2015). Transforming our world : the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development, 21 October 2015, A/RES/70/1. Available at: https://www.refworld.org/docid/57b6e3e44.html [accessed 27 September 2023]
| Positive Treatment Effects and High Heterogeneity of Hormonal Contraceptive Use on Women's Sexuality | Laura J. Botzet, Julia M. Rohrer, Lars Penke, Ruben C. Arslan | <p>Different women experience hormonal contraceptives differently, reporting side effects on their sexuality that range from negative to positive. But research on such causal effects of hormonal contraceptives on psychological outcomes struggles b... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Thomas Evans | 2024-03-15 15:07:34 | |||
Impact of analytic decisions on test-retest reliability of individual and group estimates in functional magnetic resonance imaging: a multiverse analysis using the monetary incentive delay taskExploring determinants of test-retest reliability in fMRI: a study with the Monetary Incentive Delay TaskRecommended by Dorothy Bishop based on reviews by Xiangzhen Kong and 1 anonymous reviewer
Functional magnetic resonance imaging has been used to explore brain-behaviour relationships for many years, with proliferation of a wide range of sophisticated analytic procedures. However, rather scant attention has been paid to the reliability of findings. Concerns have been growing failures to replicate findings in some fields, but it is hard to know how far this is a consequence of underpowered studies, flexible analytic pipelines, or variability within and between participants. Demidenko et al. (2024) took advantage of the availability of three existing datasets, including the Adolescent Brain Cognitive Development (ABCD) study, the Michigan Longitudinal Study, and the Adolescent Risk Behavior Study, which all included a version of the Monetary Incentive Delay task measured in two sessions. These were entered into a multiverse analysis, which considered how within-subject and between-subject variance varies according to four analytic factors: smoothing (5 levels), motion correction (6 levels), task modelling (3 levels) and task contrasts (4 levels). They also considered how sample size affects estimates of reliability. The results have important implications for the those using fMRI with the Monetary Incentive Delay Task, and also raise questions more broadly about use of fMRI indices to study individual differences. Motion correction had relatively little impact on the ICC, and the effect size of the smoothing kernel was modest. Larger impacts on reliability were associated with choice of contrast (implicit baseline giving larger effects) and task parameterization. But perhaps the most sobering message from this analysis is that although activation maps from group data were reasonably reliable, the ICC, used as an index of reliability for individual levels of activation, was consistently low. This raises questions about the suitability of the Monetary Incentive Delay Task for studying individual differences. Another point is that reliability estimates become more stable as sample size increases; researchers may want to consider whether the trade-off between cost and gain in precision is justified for sample sizes above 250. I did a quick literature search on Web of Science: at the time of writing the search term ("Monetary Delay Task" AND fMRI) yielded 410 returns, indicating that this is a popular method in cognitive neuroscience. The detailed analyses reported here will repay study for those who are planning further research using this task. The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over one round of in-depth review. Based on detailed responses to the reviewer's and recommender's comments, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria and awarded a positive recommendation. URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/nqgeh
Level of bias control achieved: Level 2. At least some data/evidence that was used to answer the research question had been accessed and partially observed by the authors prior to IPA, but the authors certify that they had not yet sufficiently observed the key variables within the data to be able to answer the research questions and they took additional steps to maximise bias control and rigour.
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
References 1. Demidenko, M. I., Mumford, J. A., & Poldrack, R. A. (2024). Impact of analytic decisions on test-retest reliability of individual and group estimates in functional magnetic resonance imaging: a multiverse analysis using the monetary incentive delay task [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 5 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://www.biorxiv.org/content/10.1101/2024.03.19.585755v4 | Impact of analytic decisions on test-retest reliability of individual and group estimates in functional magnetic resonance imaging: a multiverse analysis using the monetary incentive delay task | Michael I. Demidenko, Jeanette A. Mumford, Russell A. Poldrack | <p>Empirical studies reporting low test-retest reliability of individual blood oxygen-level dependent (BOLD) signal estimates in functional magnetic resonance imaging (fMRI) data have resurrected interest among cognitive neuroscientists in methods... |  | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Dorothy Bishop | 2024-03-21 02:23:30 | ||
06 Mar 2025
STAGE 1
The role of extra-striate areas in conscious motor behavior: a registered report with Fast-Optical ImagingNeural underpinning of conscious perception of visual stimuli disentangled from motor confoundsRecommended by Anoushiravan Zahedi based on reviews by 3 anonymous reviewers
The debate about consciousness and its neural underpinnings is a hot topic in cognitive neuroscience that has driven innovative original research and theoretical frameworks (Dehaene et al., 2006; Lamme, 2006). Consciousness itself can be defined and studied from different perspectives, such as neuropsychology (Laureys et al., 2004; Monti, 2012), applied philosophy (Blanke & Metzinger, 2009), and experimental cognitive neuroscience (Dehaene & Changeux, 2011). However, after several decades of research via different methods and from different perspectives, basic questions regarding consciousness and its neural underpinnings are still debated (Chalmers, 2010). One of the reasons for this ongoing debate is that consciousness cannot be easily disentangled from confounds, such as involvement of other cognitive processes like memory, language, and so forth (Dehaene & Changeux, 2011).
In the current study, Colombari et al. (2025) focus on disentangling neural markers of conscious visual perception from motoric responses. To this end, the study uses a cutting-edge neuroimaging technique, Event-Related Optical Signal (EROS), to measure the neural responses during a Go/No-Go detection task, which is especially designed to gauge visual perception regardless of response production. The study, therefore, is instrumental in addressing the neural foundation of conscious visual perception and is well situated to advance our understanding of consciousness and its neural underpinnings.
The Stage 1 submission was evaluated by three expert reviewers. After several rounds of revision, the recommender determined that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/8ya2t
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:
References
1. Blanke, O., & Metzinger, T. (2009). Full-body illusions and minimal phenomenal selfhood. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 13, 7-13. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2008.10.003
2. Chalmers, D. J. (2010). Facing Up to the Problem of Consciousness. In The Character of Consciousness (pp. 3-34). Oxford University Press. https://doi.org/10.1093/acprof:oso/9780195311105.003.0001 3. Colombari, E., Parisi, G., Mele, S., Mazzi, C., & Savazzi, S. (2025). The role of extra-striate areas in conscious motor behavior: a registered report with Fast-Optical Imaging. In principle acceptance of Version 5 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/8ya2t
4. Dehaene, S., & Changeux, J. P. (2011). Experimental and theoretical approaches to conscious processing. Neuron, 70, 200-227. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuron.2011.03.018
5. Dehaene, S., Changeux, J. P., Naccache, L., Sackur, J., & Sergent, C. (2006). Conscious, preconscious, and subliminal processing: a testable taxonomy. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 204-211. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.03.007
6. Lamme, V. A. (2006). Towards a true neural stance on consciousness. Trends in Cognitive Sciences, 10, 494-501. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.tics.2006.09.001
7. Laureys, S., Owen, A. M., & Schiff, N. D. (2004). Brain function in coma, vegetative state, and related disorders. The Lancet Neurology, 3, 537-546. https://doi.org/10.1016/s1474-4422(04)00852-x
8. Monti, M. M. (2012). Cognition in the vegetative state. Annual Review of Clinical Psychology, 8, 431-454. https://doi.org/10.1146/annurev-clinpsy-032511-143050
| The role of extra-striate areas in conscious motor behavior: a registered report with Fast-Optical Imaging | Elisabetta Colombari, Giorgia Parisi, Sonia Mele, Chiara Mazzi, Silvia Savazzi | <p>Disclosing the brain areas responsible for the emergence of visual awareness and their timing of activation represents one of the major challenges in consciousness research. In particular, isolating the neural processes strictly related to cons... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | Anoushiravan Zahedi | 2024-04-26 22:44:25 | |||
17 Oct 2024
STAGE 1
Is subjective perceptual similarity metacognitive?The relationship between perceptual discriminability and subject similarityRecommended by D. Samuel Schwarzkopf based on reviews by Haiyang Jin and 1 anonymous reviewer
Much of how we use our perception involves judgements on how similar things are: You might vaguely recognise an actor's face in a movie but not immediately recognise where you have seen it before. Some people claim to be "bad with faces". Is that in fact based on objectively poorer ability to recognise faces? Psychophysical lab studies of perception typically use forced-choice discrimination tasks in which participants must make explicit, and usually binary, decisions. Such designs can yield parametric information about underlying perceptual processes, but it is very different from how we use perception in daily life.
Here, Moharramipour and colleagues (2024) seek to better understand the link between such subjective similarity jugdements and objective discrimination ability. They argue that subjective similarity can be considered a metacognitive process, reflecting the person's awareness of their perceptual capacity. Participants will be asked to discriminate face pairs across a spectrum of morphing steps in a classical forced-choice paradigm to estimate perceptual threshold performance, as well as provide subjective ratings of similarity of the face pairs. The researchers hypothesise a correlation between objective perceptual ability and subjective similarity judgements. They will evaluate this at the group level, and also use a resampling approach to determine the specificity of this relationship in individual participants. Confirming this hypothesis would advance our knowledge of how perceptual ability links with our metacognitive introspection of it. Are you really "bad with faces" or do you only think you are?
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 awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/pzugy
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:
References
Moharramipour, A., Zhou, W., Rahnev, D., & Lau, H. (2024). Is subjective perceptual similarity metacognitive? In principle acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/pzugy
| Is subjective perceptual similarity metacognitive? | Ali Moharramipour, William Zhou, Dobromir Rahnev, Hakwan Lau | <p>Perceptual similarity is a cornerstone for human learning and generalization. However, in assessing the similarity between two stimuli differing in multiple dimensions, it is not well-defined which feature(s) one should focus on. The problem ha... | Life Sciences, Social sciences | D. Samuel Schwarzkopf | 2024-06-15 15:27:08 |
