COVID-19 has been associated with cognitive impairments, particularly in memory performance (Guo et al., 2022). Given that associative memory typically declines earlier than item memory in conditions such as mild cognitive impairment (Chen & Chang, 2016), it remains an open question whether COVID-19 differentially affects item and associative memory. Furthermore, it is unclear whether such effects are specific to verbal or non-verbal material. To investigate these questions, Weinerova et al. (2024) recruited participants via long-COVID Facebook groups and clinical settings. They reported a significant detrimental effect of COVID-19 status on long-term memory performance across tasks. However, they did not find evidence for their preregistered hypothesis of an interaction between COVID-19 status and either memory type (item vs. associative) or stimulus type (verbal vs. non-verbal).

 

In the Stage 1 report, the authors preregistered a Bayes Factor threshold of 6 as the criterion for supporting the alternative hypothesis. All planned analyses were preregistered, incorporating both frequentist methods (to replicate Guo et al., 2022) and Bayesian ANCOVA (to test the preregistered hypotheses). As data collection had been completed at the time of Stage 1 submission, we assigned a Level 3 bias control to the Stage 1 report.

 

In the Stage 2 report, the authors confirmed a general negative impact of COVID-19 on long-term memory accuracy. Using frequentist ANCOVA, they successfully replicated Guo et al. (2022)’s findings of reduced accuracy in verbal item and non-verbal associative memory among individuals with prior COVID-19 infection. However, they did not replicate the previously observed effect on reaction times. The Bayesian ANCOVA analyses did not reach the preregistered evidential threshold (BF > 6). Verbal associative memory, which was not part of the original replication attempt, also showed reduced accuracy in individuals with prior infection. In contrast, performance on non-verbal item memory tasks showed a ceiling effect, possibly due to methodological differences from Guo et al. (2022). Across all four memory tasks, the authors found robust evidence for decreased accuracy associated with COVID-19 status but no effect on reaction times.

 

Contrary to their hypotheses, models that included interactions between COVID-19 status and either memory type or stimulus type were less likely than the null model, suggesting a general, rather than specific, detrimental effect of COVID-19 on long-term memory.

 

Analyses of vaccination status yielded inconclusive results, likely due to limited sample size and uncertainty in participants' self-reports of vaccination timing relative to infection. The question of whether vaccination has protective effects on cognition remains unresolved and merits further investigation. The authors also reported tentative exploratory findings, such as a potential association between longer time since infection and slower reaction times in verbal item memory tasks. These observations require confirmation in future studies.

 

Overall, the study makes a valuable contribution by replicating prior findings and extending them to suggest a broad impairment of long-term memory associated with COVID-19.

 

The Stage 2 report was reviewed by the same three reviewers who had evaluated the Stage 1 submission. All reviewers agreed that the authors had addressed prior comments and had adhered to the preregistered methodology and analysis plan. As in the Stage 1 evaluation, we note the potential for selection bias introduced by recruiting participants via long-COVID Facebook groups. Individuals with post-infection cognitive complaints may have been more likely to volunteer, limiting generalizability to the broader SARS-CoV-2-infected population. This and other limitations are clearly acknowledged in the Discussion section of the Stage 2 manuscript. The recommender judged that the manuscript met all Stage 2 criteria for recommendation.

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/tjs5u
 
Level of bias control achieved: Level 3. At least some data/evidence that was used to the answer the research question had been accessed by the authors prior to in-principle acceptance (e.g. downloaded or otherwise received), but the authors certify that they had not yet observed ANY part of the data/evidence.
 
List of eligible PCI RR-friendly journals:
 

1. Chen, P.-C., & Chang, Y.-L. (2016, May). Associative memory and underlying brain correlates in older adults with mild cognitive impairment. Neuropsychologia, 85, 216–225. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.neuropsychologia.2016.03.032

 

2. Guo, P., Benito Ballesteros, A., Yeung, S. P., Liu, R., Saha, A., Curtis, L., ... Cheke, L. G. (2022b). COVCOG 2: Cognitive and memory deficits in long COVID: A second publication from the COVID and Cognition Study. Frontiers in Aging Neuroscience, 14, 804937. https://doi.org/10.3389/fnagi.2022.804937

 

3. Weinerova, J., Yeung, S., Guo, P., Yau, A., Horne, C., Ghinn, M., Curtis, L., Adlard, F., Bhagat, V., Zhang, S., Kaser, M., Bozic, M., Schluppeck, D., Reid, A., Tibon, R., & Cheke, L. (2025). Changes in memory function in adults following SARS-CoV-2 infection: Findings from the Covid and Cognition online study [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 1 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/q5vu2?view_only=228165eb161d490b945ca019143ba98c

Social anxiety, which designates intense fear or anxiety of social situations due to the expectation of negative evaluation, is a relatively common disorder affecting 7-13% of the population (Modini & Abbott, 2016). Given the negative consequences that the disorder has on affected individuals (Matos et al., 2013; Modini & Abbott, 2016), looking for novel methods to ameliorate the symptoms is a societal imperative. 

 

The current study by McCarthy et al. (2025) focuses on the comparison of the current self with previous selves, which, although well-studied in cognitive neuroscience, has not been widely applied as a treatment of clinical and sub-clinical disorders. Nevertheless, comparison with previous selves has been shown to alter cognitive and affective processes and improve current self-evaluation (Broemer et al., 2007; Hanko et al., 2009; Morina, 2021), making it a prime target for handling sub-clinical individuals with social anxiety. The current paper, therefore, investigates whether comparison with previous selves can help individuals with sub-clinical social anxiety in countering their negative affect, which offers valuable clinical and theoretical contributions.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review. Based on detailed responses to the recommender and 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/wumdj
 
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:
 

 

 

1. Broemer, P., Grabowski, A., Gebauer, J. E., Ermel, O., & Diehl, M. (2007). How temporal distance from past selves influences self‐perception. European Journal of Social Psychology, 38, 697-714. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.469

 

2. Hanko, K., Crusius, J., & Mussweiler, T. (2009). When I and me are different: assimilation and contrast in temporal self‐comparisons. European Journal of Social Psychology, 40, 160-168. https://doi.org/10.1002/ejsp.625

 

3. Matos, M., Pinto-Gouveia, J., & Gilbert, P. (2013). The effect of shame and shame memories on paranoid ideation and social anxiety. Clinical Psychology & Psychotherapy, 20, 334-349. https://doi.org/10.1002/cpp.1766

 

4. McCarthy, P. A., Morina, N., & Meyer, T. (2025). Cognitive, affective and behavioural effects of temporal comparison with prior aversive experiences in individuals with social anxiety. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/wumdj

 

5. Modini, M., & Abbott, M. J. (2016). A Comprehensive Review of the Cognitive Determinants of Anxiety and Rumination in Social Anxiety Disorder. Behaviour Change, 33, 150-171. https://doi.org/10.1017/bec.2016.10

 

6. Morina, N. (2021). Comparisons Inform Me Who I Am: A General Comparative-Processing Model of Self-Perception. Perspect Psychol Sci, 16, 1281-1299. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620966788

​Karakashevska and colleagues (2025) examined the extraretinal representation of visual symmetry presented in a virtual reality environment. Previous research has demonstrated that individuals can detect symmetry when the symmetry is represented on a perspective plane, slanted away from the viewer. In electroencephalography (EEG), perceived symmetry is marked by an Event Related Potential (ERP) called a Sustained Posterior Negativity (SPN). When symmetry is presented on a perspective plane in comparison to front-on (frontoparallel), the SPN is reduced, termed the perspective cost. Here, Karakashevska et al. (2025) determined if presenting symmetry on a perspective plane in a virtual reality (VR) environment reduced the perspective cost with the addition of 3D depth cues. Specifically, participants were requested to detect symmetry or luminance of a stimulus presented in a VR environment whilst wearing an EEG.

 

The authors found no perspective cost during the regularity task when symmetry was presented on a frontoparallel plane versus symmetry on a perspective plane. When participants were performing the luminance task, the authors found no conclusive evidence for the presence or absence of perspective cost. Together these data suggest that when immersed in a virtual reality (VR) environment, critical depth cues are available to overcome perspective cost in the perception of symmetry. 

 

The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated by two expert reviewers. One of our reviewers reviewed the Stage 1 manuscript, and one reviewer was new. The reviewers agreed that the authors had adhered to their registered Stage 1 manuscript and were convinced by the interpretation of the results. The recommender has determined that the Stage 2 criteria was met and has awarded a positive recommendation. ​

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/7pnxu
 
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:

 

• 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

 

 

Karakashevska, E., Batterley, M/, Yuxin, Y., & Makin, A. D. J. (2025). They look virtually the same: extraretinal representation of symmetry in virtual reality [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/sfyg6_v2

 

Perception is a subjective experience shaped by both bottom-up information from the environment and top-down individual differences in internal processes. External and internal “noise” can affect perception, such as the level of lighting in a room (external) or spontaneous neural excitation (internal). Individual differences in internal noise may, in part, be connected to schizotypal traits: schizotypy is a collection of traits related to the schizophrenia spectrum that can be found in the general (non-clinical) population, including aberrant perceptual experiences. Higher schizotypy is thought to be related to higher levels of internal noise.

 

This hypothesis stems from recent evidence, which suggests a positive link between schizophrenia and internal noise, measured by disruptions in oscillatory EEG activity. Unique to the proposed study, however, the authors suggest this link may also be expressed behaviorally. Specifically, Cessa and colleagues (2025) propose that high and low schizotypy may correspond to high and low levels of internal noise, respectively, which can be measured behaviorally using a Random Dot Kinematogram (RDK) task. In this task, participants will be presented with two RDKs and asked to decide which of them displayed coherent motion, with different levels of external noise added to the RDKs. In individuals with typical perception, intermediate levels of external noise lead to optimal performance in this task. The authors hypothesize that individuals with high schizotypy will show aberrant perceptual effects, in that they will perform best for RDKs with significantly lower levels of external noise compared to individuals with low schizotypy, reflecting individual differences in internal noise levels.

 

In this Stage 1 manuscript, Cessa and colleagues present an introduction that motivates their hypotheses from previous studies from their lab in different age groups: older individuals are thought to experience higher levels of internal noise compared to young adults, similar to high schizotypal individuals. In the previous study, they found that older individuals required lower levels of external noise for optimal RDK performance, suggesting high levels of internal noise interfered with perception. The current study will test for the same effect in schizotypy, now controlling for age (with an age limit of 49 years, based on the previous findings). A minimum of 130 individuals will be recruited online via Prolific, advertisements at the university, and word-of-mouth.

 

The Stage 1 submission - including proposed methods, hypotheses, analysis & interpretation plan, sampling plan, and inference criteria - was evaluated by the recommender and three topic expert reviewers. Following revisions, 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/nvydj
 
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:
 

 

Cessa, R., Contemori, G.,  Battaglini, L., Cenk, E., & Bertamini, M. (2025). Stochastic resonance and internal noise in schizotypal traits: a random dot kinematograms paradigm. In principle acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/nvydj

How are the thousands of existing, and yet to be created, psychological measurement instruments related, and how reliable are they? Hommel and Arslan (2024) have trained a language model--SurveyBot3000--to provide answers to these questions efficiently and without human intervention.

 

In their Stage 1 submission, the authors describe 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, scales, and their reliabilities. The pilot results are promising: SurveyBot3000's predicted inter-scale correlations were extremely strongly associated with empirical correlations from existing human data.

 

The authors now plan for a further examination their model's performance and validity. They will collect novel test data across a large number of subjects, and again test the model's performance fully out of sample. Reviewers deemed these plans, and their associated planned analyses suitable. The anticipated results--along with already existing pilot results--promise a very useful methodological innovation to aid researchers in both selecting and evaluating existing measures, and developing and testing new measures.

 

The Stage 1 submission was reviewed twice by three reviewers each with expertise in the area. All reviewers identified the initial submission as timely and important, and suggested mostly editorial improvements that could be made to the Stage 1 report. After two rounds of review, the relatively minor remaining suggestions can be taken into account during preparation of the Stage 2 report.

 

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 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:
 

 

 

Hommel, B. E., & Arslan, R. C. (2024). Language models accurately infer correlations between psychological items and scales from text alone. In principle acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/2c8hf