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Latest recommendations
| Id | Title * | Authors * | Abstract * ▲ | Picture | Thematic fields * | Recommender | Reviewers | Submission date | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
28 Sep 2023
STAGE 1
Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Women’s Sexuality and Well-Being: Estimating Treatment Effects and Their Heterogeneity Based on Longitudinal DataThe Causal Effects of Hormonal Contraceptives on Psychological OutcomesRecommended by Thomas Evans based on reviews by Summer Mengelkoch and 2 anonymous reviewers
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 the current programmatic submission, Botzet et al. (2023) argue 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) 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 have proposed analysis of longitudinal data from the German Family Panel (PAIRFAM) which includes annual waves of data collection from >6500 women, with separate Stage 2 submissions planned to report findings based on sexuality and well-being. The proposed work will progress our understanding of the impact of hormonal contraceptives by overcoming limitations of more common research approaches in this field, and has the potential to contribute to a more contextualised view of the impact of their impacts in real-world practice.
The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over three 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/kj3h2
Level of bias control achieved: Level 3: At least some of the data/evidence that will be used to answer the research question already exists AND is accessible in principle to the authors BUT the authors certify that they have not yet accessed any part of that data/evidence.
List of eligible PCI-RR-friendly journals:
References
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. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/kj3h2
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]
| Hormonal Contraceptive Use and Women’s Sexuality and Well-Being: Estimating Treatment Effects and Their Heterogeneity Based on Longitudinal Data | Laura J. Botzet, Julia M. Rohrer, Lars Penke, and Ruben C. Arslan | <p>Different women experience hormonal contraceptives differently, reporting side effects on their sexuality and well-being that range from negative to positive. But research on such causal effects of hormonal contraceptives on psychological outco... | Social sciences | Thomas Evans | 2022-11-30 13:20:14 | |||
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 | |||
24 Sep 2024
STAGE 1
Independent Comparative Evaluation of the Pupil Neon - A New Mobile Eye-trackerAssessing the Promise of Affordable, Mobile Eye-Tracking Devices: Evaluation of the Pupil NeonRecommended by Rima-Maria Rahal based on reviews by Lisa Spitzer and Benedikt Ehinger
Studying eye-gaze has long been employed as a central method for understanding attentional dynamics and cognitive processes in a variety of domains. The development of affordable, mobile eye-tracking devices, such as the Pupil Neon, promises new opportunities to extend this research beyond the contexts in which traditional eye-trackers have been available. But how good are such novel devices at detecting variables relevant for the study of eye movements and pupil dilations?
Foucher, Krug and Sauter (2024) propose an independent evaluation of the Pupil Neon eye-tracker using the Ehinger et al. (2019) test battery, comparing its performance with a traditional EyeLink 1000 Plus device. In an empirical study, participants will be asked to perform a wide variety of tasks while eye movements and pupil dilations are tracked using both devices. Results on the strengths and weaknesses, as well as potential use cases of the Pupil Neon will be informative for subsequent eye-tracking research.
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/3kc5t
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. Ehinger, B. V., Groß, K., Ibs, I., and König, P. (2019). A New Comprehensive Eye-Tracking Test Battery Concurrently Evaluating the Pupil Labs Glasses and the Eyelink 1000. PeerJ, 7, e7086. https://doi.org/10.7717/peerj.7086 2. Foucher, V., Krug, A., and Sauter, M. (2024). Independent Comparative Evaluation of the Pupil Neon - A New Mobile Eye-tracker. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/3kc5t | Independent Comparative Evaluation of the Pupil Neon - A New Mobile Eye-tracker | Valentin Foucher, Alina Krug, Marian Sauter | <p>Due to the rapid adoption of (mobile) eye-tracking devices in both academic and consumer research, it becomes more important that the increasing number of datasets is based on reliable recordings. This study provides an independent evaluation o... | Engineering, Life Sciences, Social sciences | Rima-Maria Rahal | 2024-05-29 10:29:06 | |||
08 Feb 2022
STAGE 1
Arithmetic deficits in Parkinson's Disease? A registered reportGetting the numbers right in Parkinson's disease?Recommended by Zoltan Dienes based on reviews by Pia Rotshtein, Ann Dowker, Stephanie Rossit and 1 anonymous reviewer
Everyday life, including for patients taking different types of medicine, involves dealing with numbers. Even though Parkinson's disease may ordinarily be thought of as primarily being a motor disorder, there is evidence that numerical abilities decline as Parkinson's disease progresses. Further, the brain areas involved in arithmetic operations overlap with the areas that degenerate in Parkinson's disease. In this Stage 1 Registered Report, Loenneker et al. (2022) will test healthy controls, Parkinson disease patients with normal cognition, and Parkinson disease patients with mild cognitive impairment on general working memory tasks as well as arithmetic performance on the four basic operations (addition, subtraction, multiplication, division). The study aims to test whether or not there is a deficit in each operation, and the relation of any deficits to general working memory capacity. The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over four rounds of review (including two rounds of in-depth specialist review). Based on comprehensive 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/nb5fj 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 Loenneker, H. D., Liepelt-Scarfone, I., Willmes, K., Nuerk, H.-C., & Artemenko, C. (2022). Arithmetic deficits in Parkinson’s Disease? A Registered Report. Stage 1 preregistration, in principle acceptance of version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/nb5fj | Arithmetic deficits in Parkinson's Disease? A registered report | Hannah D. Loenneker, Inga Liepelt-Scarfone, Klaus Willmes, Hans-Christoph Nuerk, & Christina Artemenko | <p>Elderly people and patients with neurodegenerative diseases such as Parkinson’s Disease (PD) immensely rely on arithmetic skills to lead an independent life. Activities such as medication management, financial transactions or using public trans... | | Life Sciences | Zoltan Dienes | 2021-06-29 19:23:53 | ||
20 Dec 2024
STAGE 1
Self-Affirmation and Prejudice Against Religious Groups: The Role of Ideological MalleabilityDoes ideological malleability moderate the effect of self-affirmation on prejudice?Recommended by Anna Elisabeth Fürtjes based on reviews by Sauro Civitillo and Pete Harris
Self-affirmation may be an effective tool to reduce prejudice and discrimination against minority groups. Its hypothesised mechanism is that prejudice is a defensive act that can be reduced by reinforcing a positive image of the self. Such a reinforced self-image is meant to weaken perceived threat to one’s social identity that may be posed by minority groups, such as Muslims in majority Christian countries.
To address mixed evidence for the effectiveness of self-affirmation across the literature, Alnajjar et al. (2024) aim to elucidate conditions under which self-affirmation may reduce prejudice and discrimination. Whether self-affirmation has the desired effect may be moderated by an individual’s internal representation of secularism. That is, as a reaction to self-affirmation, people may flexibly endorse their feelings towards secularism to either reduce prejudice, or maintain and justify it.
The authors present a study design (including a three-way mixed ANOVA) in which they plan to self-affirm French participants (N=600) with differing internal representations of secularism. Across three self-affirmation conditions (i.e., self-affirmation on a threat-related value, a threat-unrelated value, and no self-affirmation), the authors will assess the effect of self-affirmation on prejudice towards Muslims. They will also assess their participants’ attitudes towards Christians and Muslims, to distinguish whether prejudice is specifically targeted against Muslims, rather than religious groups in general. In addition, the study setup considers desirability concerns and it employs multiple manipulation checks to increase robustness of results.
With this proposed plan, the manuscript presents a persuasive rationale that it taps into the wider concept of ‘ideological malleability’ that could be the underlying mechanism to explain a moderating effect of secularism on the effectiveness of self-affirmation in this French sample. By considering nuances of public opinion towards secularism in France specifically, the authors have identified a unique opportunity to investigate ideological malleability, which can be challenging to conceive and directly measure.
The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated by two experts who performed in-depth peer review across multiple rounds of revisions. The authors were very responsive in editing their manuscript based on the reviewers’ comments and dedicated much effort to increasing clarity and interpretability of their power analyses. Consequently, the revised manuscript was judged to meet the Stage 1 criteria and was awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/f4wm6
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. Alnajjar, Y., Badea, C., & Sternberg, B. (2024). Self-Affirmation and Prejudice Against Religious Groups: The Role of Ideological Malleability. In principle acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/f4wm6
| Self-Affirmation and Prejudice Against Religious Groups: The Role of Ideological Malleability | Yara Alnajjar, Constantina Badea and Béatrice Sternberg | <p><em>[IMPORTANT: Abstract, method, and results were written in past tense, to simulate what these sections will look like after data collection, but no pre-registration or data collection took place yet.]</em></p> <p> </p> <p>Self-affirma... | Social sciences | Anna Elisabeth Fürtjes | 2023-09-15 15:39:55 | |||
25 Mar 2024
STAGE 1
The role of positive and negative emotions on multiple components of episodic memory (“what”, “when”, “in which context”) in older compared to younger adults: a pre-registered studyThe role of emotion and age on different facets of episodic memory (“what”, “when”, “in which context”)Recommended by Elizabeth Wonnacott based on reviews by Mara Mather and 1 anonymous reviewer
How does emotion influence item memory (what?) temporal memory (when?) and associative memory (in which context?), and does this differ for younger and older adults? Previous research has found inconsistent results, possibly due to small sample sizes. In this study, Laulan and Rimmele (2024) and will build on the paradigm in Palombo et al. (2021) in which participants see images embedded in videos and are asked to remember the images (what?), their temporal position within the videos (where?), and the association between the images and the videos (in which context?). Image valence (positive vs negative vs neutral) and participant age-group (18-30 vs 60-80 yr olds) are manipulated. Pre-registered analyses will first look at the two age groups separately to test for an effect of valence for each of the memory components, and second test for modulating effects of age-group. To be cost-effective, a sequential analysis approach with statistical analyses conducted at three time points and a maximum sample size of 150 younger and 150 older adults is planned.
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/z4e8j
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. Laulan, P. & Rimmele, U. (2024). The role of positive and negative emotions on multiple components of episodic memory (“what”, “when”, “in which context”) in older compared to young adults: a pre-registered study. In principle acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/z4e8j
2. Palombo, D. J., Te, A. A., Checknita, K. J. & Madan, C. R. (2021). Exploring the Facets of Emotional Episodic Memory: Remembering “What,” “When,” and “Which”. Psychological Science, 32, 1104–1114. https://doi.org/10.1177/0956797621991548
| The role of positive and negative emotions on multiple components of episodic memory (“what”, “when”, “in which context”) in older compared to younger adults: a pre-registered study | Pierrick Laulan, Ulrike Rimmele | <p>Emotion and age modulate episodic memory. In both young and older adults, emotion has a beneficial effect on item memory, with an advantage for positive vs. negative stimuli in older adults. In young adults, emotion has also been shown to enhan... | Social sciences | Elizabeth Wonnacott | 2023-04-12 16:58:21 | |||
15 Jul 2022
STAGE 1
Registered Report: A Laboratory Experiment on Using Different Financial-Incentivization Schemes in Software-Engineering ExperimentationBug detection in software engineering: which incentives work best?Recommended by Chris Chambers based on reviews by Edson OliveiraJr and 1 anonymous reviewer
Bug detection is central to software engineering, but what motivates programmers to perform as optimally as possible? Despite a long history of economic experiments on incentivisation, there is surprisingly little research on how different incentives shape software engineering performance. In the current study, Krüger et al. (2022) propose an experiment to evaluate how the pay-off functions associated with different financial incentives influence the performance of participants in identifying bugs during code review. The authors hypothesise that performance-based incentivisation will result in higher average performance, as defined using the F1-score, and that different incentivisation schemes may also differ in their effectiveness. As well as testing confirmatory predictions, the authors will explore a range of ancillary strands, including how the different incentivisation conditions influence search and evaluation behaviour (using eye-tracking), and the extent to which any effects are moderated by demographic factors.
The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over one round 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/s36c2 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. Krüger, J., Çalıklı, G., Bershadskyy, D., Heyer, R., Zabel, S. & Siegmar, O. (2022). Registered Report: A Laboratory Experiment on Using Different Financial-Incentivization Schemes in Software-Engineering Experimentation, in principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/s36c2
| Registered Report: A Laboratory Experiment on Using Different Financial-Incentivization Schemes in Software-Engineering Experimentation | Jacob Krüger, Gül Çalıklı, Dmitri Bershadskyy, Robert Heyer, Sarah Zabel, Siegmar Otto | <p>Empirical studies in software engineering are often conducted with open-source developers or in industrial collaborations. Seemingly, this resulted in few experiments using financial incentives (e.g., money, vouchers) as a strategy to motivate ... | Social sciences | Chris Chambers | 2022-02-23 09:30:05 | |||
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 | ||
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 | |||
Action interpretation determines the effects of go/no-go and approach/avoidance actions on food choiceDoes interpretation of actions as either avoid or inhibit influence choice behaviour for candy?Recommended by Andrew Jones based on reviews by Alexander MacLellan and Katrijn HoubenExperimental research demonstrates that executing or inhibiting motor responses (or approaching / avoiding) towards a stimulus can alter the valuation of the stimulus (Yang et al., 2022). There are competing theories as to the proposed mechanisms of value change, such as increased response conflict or prediction errors (Houben & Aulbach, 2023). However, research has mostly examined response execution/inhibition and approach/avoidance in isolation and the few studies that have examined these together have focused on stimulus evaluation as an outcome.
In the current study Chen et al. (2025) set out to examine how action interpretations (e.g. go vs approach) can impact individuals food-choices. This is important for cognitive bias modification approaches which aim to manipulate these actions to promote behaviour change (Iannazzo et al., 2024; Veling et al., 2021), but also theoretical accounts which suggest certain motor-responses acquire valence. Here there are two groups randomised to receive instructions to either go/no-go or approach/avoid images of candy in novel training task (Chen et al., 2019).
The results of the experiment suggested that despite both groups making the same responses (pressing a space bar vs not), the framing of the response as go vs approach and no-go vs avoidance influenced subsequent food-choice (i.e. responses framed as approach increased the probability of choosing approach items over avoidance items, but not go items over no-go items). As the authors state, these findings cast doubt on theoretical models which suggest there are ‘hardwired’ links between specific go/approach responses and appetitive systems or specific no-go/avoidance responses and aversive systems. They also suggest these responses aren’t valenced, but acquire valence through interpretation of the action. These findings can also inform future studies into cognitive bias modification. The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review by two reviewers with expertise in the relevant area, who also assessed the Stage 1 manuscript. Based on the authors’ careful responses and revisions, the revised manuscript was judged to meet the Stage 2 criteria and was awarded a positive recommendation. URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/bn5xa
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. Chen, Z., Van Dessel, P., Serverius, J., Zhu, D. & Figner, B. (2025). Action interpretation determines the effects of go/no-go and approach/avoidance actions on food choice. Acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/6xhw4_v2
2. Chen, Z., & Van Dessel, P. (2024). Action Interpretation Determines the Effects of Go/No-Go and Approach/Avoidance Actions on Stimulus Evaluation. Open Mind, 8, 898–923. https://doi.org/10.1162/opmi_a_00151
3. Houben, K. and Aulbach, M. (2023). Is there a difference between stopping and avoiding? A review of the mechanisms underlying Go/No-Go and Approach-Avoidance training for food choice. Current Opinion in Behavioral Sciences, 49, 101245. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cobeha.2022.101245
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| Action interpretation determines the effects of go/no-go and approach/avoidance actions on food choice | Zhang Chen, Pieter Van Dessel, Jordi Serverius, Daxun Zhu, Bernd Figner | <p>Executing go/no-go and approach/avoidance responses toward objects can increase people's choices of go over no-go items, and of approach over avoidance items. Some theoretical accounts explain these effects as the results of merely executing th... | Social sciences | Andrew Jones | 2024-11-24 11:21:55 |
