For many of us, music is far more than an auditory experience. It can trigger emotional reactions, evoke memories, and wide-ranging associations with other sensory modalities and cognitive states. Music also varies between different cultures in several ways. It remains unclear in how far the broader associations music has differs between cultural contexts, both in terms of the music itself and the listener. This study by Hadavi et al. (2024) seeks to better understand these relationships. Using an online survey targeted at 72 participants from anglophone Canada, Farsi-speaking Iran, and Japan (24 from each location), the researchers aim to address two straightforward hypotheses.

 

First, does faster tempo of music increase ratings of emotional arousal? Second, do participants match faster tempo music with denser visual line patterns? This latter measure aims to quantify the visual imagery evoked by the musical pieces. Imagery is a loaded term that is not used consistently across the cognitive neuroscience literature; one could argue that what the researchers are actually here is in fact mainly an association between tempo and a visual representation of tempo (or frequency). It certainly seems doubtful that persons listening to a piece of music will form a mental image of a bundle of horizontal lines. Yet, irrespective of how to interpret this experimental variable, it quantifies something about the impression listeners have when experiencing music, and whether these associations differ cross-culturally. The experiment has a balanced design, incorporating excerpts of musical pieces from each of the three cultural contexts, including both solo and group music. While the sample size is comparably low, given the online nature of data collection, it is based on a power analysis and relatively large expected effect sizes.

 

The proposed study was evaluated by three expert reviewers and the recommender over three rounds of in-depth review, plus a final round ironing out smaller issues. Reviewer Juan David Leongómez was recruited as a co-author after the first round of revisions. Following this process, the recommender decided that the manuscript met Stage 1 criteria and awarded in-principle acceptance (IPA).

 

 
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.
 
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References
 
1.Hadavi, S., Kuroda, J., Shimozono, T., Leongómez, J. D. & Savage, P. E. (2024). Cross-cultural relationships between music, emotion, and visual imagery: A comparative study of Iran, Canada, and Japan. In principle acceptance of Version 6 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/zdnkm

Many studies of unconscious processing measure priming effects. Such experiments test whether a prime stimulus can exert an effect on speeded responses to a subsequently presented target stimulus even when participants are unaware of the prime. In some studies, participants are required to report their awareness of the prime in each trial - a dual-task design. Other studies conduct such visibility tests in separate experiments, so that the priming effect is measured via a single task. Both these approaches have pros and cons; however, it remains unclear to what extent they can affect the process of interest. Can the choice of experimental design and its parameters interfere with the priming effect? This could have implications for interpreting such effects, including in previous literature.

 

In the current study, Wendt and Hesselmann (2024) will investigate the effects of using a dual-task design in a masked priming paradigm, focusing on subjective visibility judgments. Based on power analysis, the study will test 34 participants performing both single-task and several dual-task conditions to measure reaction times and priming effects. Priming is tested via a speeded forced-choice identification of a target. The key manipulation is the non-speeded visibility rating of the prime using a Perceptual Awareness Scale, either with a graded (complex) rating or a dichotomous response. Moreover, participants will either provide their awareness judgement via a keyboard or vocally. Finally, participants will also complete a control condition to test prime visibility by testing the objective identification of the prime. These conditions will be presented in separate blocks, with the order randomised across participants. The authors hypothesise that using a dual-task slows down response times and boosts priming effects. However, they further posit that keyboard responses and graded visibility ratings, respectively, in the dual task reduce priming effects (but also slow response times) compared to vocal responses and dichotomous visibility judgements. In addition to the preregistered hypotheses, the study will also collect EEG data to explore the neural underpinnings of these processes.

 

The Stage 1 manuscript went through three rounds of review by the recommender and five expert reviewers. While the recommender would have preferred to see targeted, directional hypotheses explicitly specified in the design instead of non-directional main effects/interactions, he nevertheless considers this experimental design ready for commencing data collection, and therefore granted in-principle acceptance.

 

 
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.
 
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Wendt, C. & Hesselmann, G. (2024). Probing the dual-task structure of a metacontrast-masked priming paradigm with subjective visibility judgments. In principle acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/ds2w5

Higher-level cognitive processes like attention, memory, or mental imagery can produce pupil responses, without any actual difference in luminance of the visual stimulus. Interestingly, the inverse scenario remained untested to date: when a physical luminance difference is perceptually eliminated from awareness, does pupil size still track attention to the stimulus? In this Registered Report, Vilotijević and Mathôt (2024) sought to test this experimentally using a perceptual fading phenomenon where two Gaussian patches with different luminances fade from consciousness and are thus perceived as mid-level uniform grey (or at least the subjective difference is much reduced). This fading manipulation, as well as a control condition without perceptual fading, were presented in separate blocks. Participants were instructed to covertly attend one of the patches.

The authors hypothesised that if pupil size reflects attentional selection, these pupil responses in the fading condition​ should be eliminated or at least reduced, and this should evolve with time as the stimuli are perceptually fading. Their results show that pupil responses during covert attention are indeed reduced during perceptual fading - but they are not eliminated. Interestingly, this reduction did not depend on time or self-reports of the strength of perceptual fading. The findings therefore suggest that pupil dilation tracks subjective brightness differences.

 

One inherent issue with experiments like these is that the experimental and control conditions necessarily involve a physical difference in the stimulus. Here, the fading condition had the same spatial configuration of light and dark stimuli throughout a block while in the control (non-fading) condition the light and dark stimuli alternated sides between trials. It is therefore impossible to completely rule out that the physical difference affects the results. However, the only alternative to this would be an experimental design in which the stimuli never change, but only the subjective perceptual state varies. Such a design is completely at the mercy of the participant's subjective state and therefore loses experimental control and statistical sensitivity. The present results confirmed the authors' prediction that there are indeed differences in overall pupil responses during the fading and control conditions, irrespective of covert attention.

 

Critically, the fact that the attention effect did not vary with time or subjective self-reports of the illusion supports the authors' interpretation that this reflects higher-level cognition: the mere act of attending to the dark side - even if the actual appearance has faded - could cause a sustained pupil dilation. This would be consistent with the type of pupil effects for memory and mental imagery that motivated the present study. However, a simpler alternative is that the experience of perceptual fading was incomplete (as possibly suggested by Figures 2D and 2F) but that self-reports fail to capture this subjective experience accurately. Perhaps a future study could compare the magnitude of the attentional pupil effects when the initial stimulus is completely removed. If similar differences in pupil response persist this would suggest that the present results are due to high-level modulation or the residual low-level luminance difference.

 

The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated by two reviewers and the recommender over two rounds of review. One reviewer again advised additional robustness checks to rule out eye movement confounds, an issue they had already raised during Stage 1 review. The researchers provide clear evidence that this is unlikely to have confounded their findings. This has been added to the supplementary data repository. Following this review and revision, the recommender judged that the Stage 2 criteria were met and awarded a positive recommendation.

 

URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/bmtp6
 
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:

 

 

 

1. Vilotijević, A. & Mathôt, S. (2024). The effect of covert visual attention on pupil size during perceptual fading [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/ku8qc?view_only=f331df53b50f431386fabba9e386b387

 

When does the perceived wastefulness of different actions affect people's choices? In an influential set of studies examining different conceptions of wastefulness (overspending, underutilization, and sunk costs), Arkes (1996) found a systematic aversion to wastefulness in decision making, even when choosing to avoid wastefulness has no economic value or works against personal interest. While these findings have been influential in basic and applied research, there have been no attempts to directly replicate the results. Moreover, the original study had several methodological limitations, including the use of relatively small samples and critical gaps in statistical reporting and analyses.

 

In the current study, Zhu and Feldman (2024) conducted a high-powered replication of Arkes (1996) using an online sample of participants (N=659). The authors incorporated several extentions to improve the methodological rigor relative to the original article, including comprehension checks, manipulation checks, a within-subjects design, and a novel quantitative analysis of participants' self-reported motivations for their choices. The authors successfully replicated the effect of perceived wastefulness on two of the three scenarios used in the original article, but participants' self-reported reasons for their choices only provided partial support for the role of perceived wastefulness in decisions, with behavioral consistency and maximizing economic value also playing a role. The original effect was not observed in a third scenario, with a failed manipulation check that may indicate changes in the perceptions of wastefulness in the domain (tax preparation). Overall, the results provide some support for the role of wastefulness aversion in decision making, while also showing that perceived wastefulness might be outweighted by other considerations depending on how people interpret or reason about a situation.

 

The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over one round of in-depth review by the recommender and two expert reviewers. Following revision, 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/r7tsw
 
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:
 

 

 

1. Arkes, H. R. (1996). The psychology of waste. Journal of Behavioral Decision Making, 9,
213-224. https://doi.org/10.1002/(SICI)1099-0771(199609)9:3%3C213::AID-BDM230%3E3.0.CO;2-1

 

2. Zhu, Z. and Feldman, G. (2024). Revisiting the Psychology of Waste: Replication and extensions Registered Report of Arkes (1996) [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 5 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/2jnc8

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).

 

 

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