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IdTitle * Authors * Abstract * PictureThematic fields * RecommenderReviewersSubmission date▼
21 Jan 2025
STAGE 2
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Can playing Dungeons and Dragons be good for you? A registered exploratory pilot program using offline Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) to mitigate social anxiety and reduce problematic involvement in multiplayer online video games

Expanding the Intervention Potential of Tabletop Role-Playing Games

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Charlotte Pennington, Matúš Adamkovič and Matti Vuorre
The human capacity and need for play has been recognized as a central psychotherapeutic component for a long time (e.g. Winnicott 1971). More recently, experts have started developing specialized digital gameplay to be used as therapeutic tools and even utilizing existing videogames for similar purposes (see Ceranoglu 2010). On the other hand, the concerns about some players becoming overinvolved in videogames also led the World Health Organization to include “gaming disorder” in the 11th edition of the International Classification of Diseases, which echoes the nuance required to address human-technology relationships in general.  
 
In the present registered report, Billieux et al. (2024) make use of analog structured role-play in a new intervention aiming to mitigate social anxiety and problematic gaming patterns in online gamers. The authors carried out an exploratory pilot to test a 10-week protocol over three modules inspired by the well-known Dungeons & Dragons franchise. Through a multiple single-case design with a 3-month follow-up, the authors carried out the pilot with 20 participants (two dropped out), which enabled collecting valuable early data about the feasibility and potential of the intervention. 
 
Weekly psychometric assessments indicated that the intervention may support participants and it should continue to be studied in order to comprehensively evaluate its effectiveness. Feedback obtained from participants and other parts of the pilot project enabled identifying elements (e.g., difficulty adjustments), which can be given attention usefully in intervention development. Without question, the study by Billieux et al. (2024) is to be commended for highly transparent documentation of the project, which allows future researchers and intervention developers to learn from the pilot beyond initial results. Among other relevant materials, the supplements provide a detailed case study and item-level psychometric reporting, which can help the development of technical solutions and new hypotheses.
 
Taken together, the study by Billieux et al. (2024) paves the way for open science invention piloting in the field. The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated by three experts (areas: experimental methods, psychopathology, gaming) via in-depth peer review across two rounds. 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/h7qat

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. Billieux, J., Fournier, L., Rochat, L., Georgieva, I., Eben, C., Malmdorf Andersen, M., King, D., Simon, O., Khazaal, Y., Lieberoth, A. & Blocha., J. (2024) Can playing Dungeons and Dragons be good for you? A registered exploratory pilot program using offline Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) to mitigate social anxiety and reduce problematic involvement in multiplayer online videogames [Stage 2 RR]. Acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/z32d5
 
2. Ceranoglu, T. (2010). Video Games in Psychotherapy. Review of General Psychology, 14 (2). https://doi.org/10.1037/a0019439
 
3. Winnicott, D. (1971/2009). Playing and Reality. Routledge.
Can playing Dungeons and Dragons be good for you? A registered exploratory pilot program using offline Tabletop Role-Playing Games (TTRPGs) to mitigate social anxiety and reduce problematic involvement in multiplayer online video gamesJoël Billieux, Loïs Fournier, Lucien Rochat, Iliyana Georgieva, Charlotte Eben, Marc Malmdorf Andersen, Daniel L. King, Olivier Simon, Yasser Khazaal, Andreas Lieberoth, Jonathan Bloch<p><strong>Background</strong>. Gamers with poor self-concept, high social anxiety, and high loneliness are more at risk of problematic involvement in video games, particularly in massively multiplayer online role-playing games (MMORPGs). There is...Social sciencesVeli-Matti Karhulahti Matúš Adamkovič, Matti Vuorre, Charlotte Pennington2024-08-30 11:29:55 View
30 Sep 2024
STAGE 2
(Go to stage 1)

The effect of covert visual attention on pupil size during perceptual fading

Does pupil size track high-level attention?

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Sander Nieuwenhuis and Martin Rolfs
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:
 
 
References
 
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
 
The effect of covert visual attention on pupil size during perceptual fadingAna Vilotijević, Sebastiaan Mathôt<p>Pupil size is modulated by various cognitive factors such as attention, working memory, mental imagery, and subjective perception. Previous studies examining cognitive effects on pupil size mainly focused on inducing or enhancing a subjective e...Social sciencesD. Samuel Schwarzkopf2024-08-17 12:58:58 View
20 Dec 2024
STAGE 2
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Self-Affirmation and Prejudice Against Religious Groups: The Role of Ideological Malleability

Does ideological malleability moderate the effect of self-affirmation on prejudice?

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Zoltan Dienes 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 imagine 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, this Registered Report (RR) was designed 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 (‘ideological malleability’) to either reduce prejudice, or maintain and justify it. This study is the first to consider whether this effect depends on a participant’s attitude that French citizens should be able to practice their religion in public places (‘historical’ secularism), or that they should hide it in public (‘new’ secularism).
 
Alnajjar et al. present a study design (i.e., three-way mixed ANOVA) in which they self-affirmed French participants (N=602) with differing internal representations of secularism. Study results demonstrated that a historical representation of secularism is associated with less effective and behavioural prejudice towards religious groups compared to a new representation of secularism. Participants’ prejudiced attitudes were larger against Muslims than against Christians. It was unexpected that new secularism was linked to negative attitudes towards religious minority groups given that the French government mandated by law that religion should not be practiced in public. Across three self-affirmation conditions (i.e., self-affirmation on a threat-related value, a threat-unrelated value, and no self-affirmation), the authors found no evidence that self-affirmation affected prejudice against religious groups, and there was no evidence that the effectiveness of self-affirmation depended on a participants representation of secularism, which contradicted their pre-registered hypotheses. This paper adds conclusive and sufficiently-powered results to a body of literature with mixed evidence for the effectiveness of self-affirmation.
 
It increased the robustness of this study that the design considered desirability concerns and employed multiple manipulation checks. By considering nuances of public opinion towards secularism in France specifically, the authors identified a unique opportunity to investigate ideological malleability, which can be challenging to conceive and directly measure. 
 
The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated by two experts who performed in-depth peer review across one round of revisions. There were no substantial changes to the introduction or the methods, the analyses were conducted as planned and additional analyses were labelled as exploratory. 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/f4wm6
 
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. Alnajjar, Y., Badea, C., & Sternberg, B. (2024). Self-Affirmation and Prejudice Against Religious Groups: The Role of Ideological Malleability [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/st47h
 
Self-Affirmation and Prejudice Against Religious Groups: The Role of Ideological MalleabilityYara Alnajjar, Constantina Badea and Béatrice Sternberg<p>Self-affirmation has shown mixed findings when used as a prejudice reduction technique, sometimes diminishing prejudice while sometimes increasing it or having no significant effect. In a Registered Report experiment with a French representativ...Social sciencesAnna Elisabeth Fürtjes2024-07-30 11:57:10 View
09 Sep 2024
STAGE 2
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The effects of isolated game elements on adherence rates in food response inhibition training

Using gamification to improve food response inhibition training

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Miguel Vadillo and Daniel Phipps
A poor diet has severe detrimental health effects, and attempts to reduce caloric intake often prove unsuccessful. Unhealthy foods, high in fat, sugar, and salt tend to be highly appetitive, and can undermine individuals’ ability to refrain themselves from consuming them. Computerized cognitive retraining techniques have shown promise in curbing the intake of unhealthy foods and promoting weight loss. However, in real-world scenarios, adherence to such retraining programs can be suboptimal, potentially diminishing their effectiveness.
 
In the present study, Maclellan et al. (2024) aimed to investigate whether the incorporation of gamified elements, transforming the cognitive retraining task into a game-like experience, can enhance adherence and overall intervention effectiveness by boosting engagement and motivation.
 
Upon testing the main hypotheses, the authors found mostly non-significant effects of adding gamified elements to adherence, motivation, or effectiveness of food response inhibition training programs. These results hold high relevance, as indeed there has been a push in introducing gamified elements to cognitive retraining programs. These findings should guide future developments in the field of cognitive retraining.
 
The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over one round of review and revision. Based on detailed evaluations by two expert reviewers, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 2 criteria and awarded a positive recommendation.
 
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/jspf3

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
 
MacLellan, A., Pennington, C. R., Lawrence, N., Westwood, S. J., Jones, A., Slegrova, A., Sung, B., Parker, L., Relph, L., Miranda, J. O., Shakeel, M., Mouka, E., Lovejoy, C., Chung, C., Lash, S., Suhail, Y., Nag M., and Button​, K. S. (2024). The effects of isolated game elements on adherence rates in food response inhibition training​ [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports.
The effects of isolated game elements on adherence rates in food response inhibition trainingAlexander MacLellan, Charlotte R. Pennington, Natalia Lawrence, Samuel J. Westwood, Andrew Jones, Anna Slegrova, Beatrice Sung, Louise Parker, Luke Relph, Jessica O. Miranda, Maryam Shakeel, Elizabeth Mouka, Charlotte Lovejoy, Chaebin Chung, Sabel...<p>Introduction: Poor diet and the consumption of foods high in fat, sugar and salt are common causes of numerous health conditions and premature mortality. Computerised food response inhibition training (food-RIT) is a type of intervention found ...Social sciencesMateo Leganes-Fonteneau2024-06-28 23:29:31 View
16 Oct 2024
STAGE 1

Psychological Wellbeing, Sleep, and Video Gaming: Analyses of Comprehensive Digital Traces

What is the relationship between video gaming and wellbeing?

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Chris Chambers, Valtteri Kauraoja and 1 anonymous reviewer
The popularity of gaming has spurred interest in understanding its impact on wellbeing. Significant research has investigated the impact of gaming from multiple angles. However, prior research has been limited by a lack of behavioural data that could be more reliable in examining the impact of gaming than self-reports of behavior. Similarly, previous research has called for examining the impact of gaming while taking genre differences into consideration.
 
In this programmatic submission (3 x Stage 2 outputs), Ballou et al. (2024) address these gaps by combining digital trace data of gamers across multiple gaming platforms (Nintendo Switch, Xbox (US only), Steam, and mobile systems (iOS and Android)) with psychological surveys measuring the gamers’ basic psychological needs, sleep quality, and subjective wellbeing over a three-month period. Participants will complete 30 daily surveys (US only) and six bi-weekly panel surveys.
 
The combination of behavioral trace data and psychological self-reports offers a rare and comprehensive look at how gaming influences different important aspects of wellbeing. This work is ambitious and addresses scientifically and socially important questions on the impact of gaming.
 
The manuscript underwent one round of in-depth review, where three reviewers with a combination of methodological and domain expertise gave generally positive feedback on the manuscript, providing directions to further strengthen the research. The authors – as judged by the recommender – thoroughly addressed the reviewer comments and have worked to further strengthen the rigour of the manuscript. A further revision round was issued by the recommender to address a minor issue with one hypothesis and other small linguistic edits.
 
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/mvngt
 
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. Ballou, N., Hakman, T., Földes, T., Vuorre, M., Magnusson, K., & Przybylski, A. K. (2024). Psychological Wellbeing, Sleep, and Video Gaming: Analyses of Comprehensive Digital Traces. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/mvngt
Psychological Wellbeing, Sleep, and Video Gaming: Analyses of Comprehensive Digital TracesNick Ballou, Thomas Hakman, Tamas Foldes, Matti Vuorre, Kristoffer Magnusson, Andrew K. Przybylski<p>The increasing prevalence of video gaming has raised questions about its psychological effects, yet research has been hampered by challenges in accessing comprehensive behavioral and psychological data. We aim to address these gaps by collectin...Social sciencesLobna Hassan2024-06-28 15:59:07 View
14 Sep 2024
STAGE 2
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Self-Control Beyond Inhibition. German Translation and Quality Assessment of the Self-Control Strategy Scale (SCSS)

Strategies for self control: German translation and evaluation of the Self Control Strategy Scale

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Eleanor Miles, Kaitlyn Werner and Sebastian Bürgler
Self-control has shown to be a trait related to beneficial outcomes, including health, academic achievement and relationship quality. It is mostly understood as the ability to suppress immediate urges in order to achieve long-term goals, such as not watching another episode and therefore reaching a healthy amount of sleep. An emerging perspective on self-control shows that there is broader variety in applied strategies, such as removing oneself from a tempting situation, or reminding oneself of one's long-term goal, or reinterpreting the temptation.
 
Katzir et al. (2021) developed a novel instrument, the Self-Control Strategy Scale, that measured the tendency to engage in eight such strategies. In the current study, Roth et al. (2024) translated the scale into German and assessed its psychometric properties: internal consistency and retest reliability were sufficient for six or seven of the eight subscales. Further, different strategies (subscales) were related to particular outcomes; at least one strategy was related to each outcome for 20 out of 23 outcomes in health behavior, school/work achievement, life satisfaction, interpersonal functioning and pro-environmental behavior (though the particular pattern of similarities and differences would need confirming). Thus, the SCSS is a valid and reliable measure that can now be used in German.
 
The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review by the recommender and at least 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/s7qwk
 
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. Katzir, M., Baldwin, M., Werner, K. M., and Hofmann, W. (2021). Moving beyond inhibition: Capturing a broader scope of the self-control construct with the Self-Control Strategy Scale (SCSS). Journal of Personality Assessment, 103, 762-776. https://doi.org/10.1080/00223891.2021.1883627
 
2. Roth, L. H. O., Jankowski, J., Meindl, D., Clay, G., Mlynski, C., Freiman, O., Nordmann, A., Stenzel, L., and Wagner, V. (2024). Self-Control beyond inhibition. German Translation and Quality Assessment of the Self-Control Strategy Scale (SCSS) [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/gpmnv

Self-Control Beyond Inhibition. German Translation and Quality Assessment of the Self-Control Strategy Scale (SCSS)Leopold H. O. Roth, Julia M. Jankowski, Dominik Meindl, Georgia Clay, Christopher Mlynski, Olga Freiman, Artemis L. Nordmann, Loana-Corine Stenzel, Victoria Wagner<p>Self-control is crucial for goal attainment and related to several beneficial outcomes, such as health and education. For a long time, it was predominantly understood in terms of inhibition, namely the ability to suppress immediate urges for th...Social sciencesZoltan Dienes Sebastian Bürgler, Eleanor Miles, Kaitlyn Werner2024-06-28 11:50:25 View
26 Nov 2024
STAGE 1

The Importance of Long- and Short-Acting Pharmacological Treatment Options for Time Use and Quality of Life in Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder: An Observational, Cross-Sectional, Survey-Based Study

Examining distinct patterns of time-use and their associations with quality of life in individuals receiving treatment for opioid use disorder

Recommended by based on reviews by Chris Chambers, Cathy Montgomery and 1 anonymous reviewer
Drug use is a time-consuming endeavour, particularly for opioids, whereby substantial time is required to seek out, prepare and consume drugs. This prioritization of drug use reduces the time that is available for substance-free alternatives that contribute positively to quality of life, such as socialization, education, employment, physical activity and self-care (Acuff et al., 2019). Given the time commitments, daily supervised treatment of opioid use disorder has poor adherence (Strang et al., 2020). As such, there is an interest in long-acting injectable medications, which can overcome these adherence issues (Saunders et al 2020). However, little is known about how patients on long-acting medications for opioid use disorder adapt to the increased free-time they have, and where this has downstream impacts on their well-being, quality of life and experience of stigma.
 
In the current study, Trøstheim and colleagues plan to conduct an observational investigation of >500 individuals from Norway with opioid use disorder who were receiving pharmacological treatment. Their primary hypothesis is that individuals with opioid use disorder will exhibit distinct time use profiles, which will be examined using latent profile analysis to identify time use patterns based on 17 measured time use variables e.g. ‘How many days in the past week have you done paid work, voluntary work, or community service’. Secondary analyses will test the associations between medication type, time use (based on the latent profile analysis), well-being, stigma and life-satisfaction. Findings from this study will provide a greater understanding of how long-acting medications for opioid use disorder impact free-time and quality of life.
 
The Stage 1 manuscript was evaluated over two rounds of in-depth review by two reviewers and the recommender. Following a response and revision, 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/vbpjg
 
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. Acuff, S. F., Dennhardt, A. A., Correia, C. J., & Murphy, J. G. (2019). Measurement of substance-free reinforcement in addiction: A systematic review. Clinical Psychology Review, 70, 79-90. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.cpr.2019.04.003
 
2. Saunders, E. C., Moore, S. K., Walsh, O., Metcalf, S. A., Budney, A. J., Scherer, E., & Marsch, L. A. (2020). Perceptions and preferences for long-acting injectable and implantable medications in comparison to short-acting medications for opioid use disorders. Journal of Substance Abuse Treatment, 111, 54-66. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jsat.2020.01.009
 
3. Strang, J., Volkow, N. D., Degenhardt, L., Hickman, M., Johnson, K., Koob, G. F., ... & Walsh, S. L. (2020). Opioid use disorder. Nature Reviews Disease Primers, 6, 3. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41572-019-0137-5
 
4. Trøstheim, M., Leknes, S., Solli, K. K., Carlyle, M., Ernst, G., & Eikemo, M. (2024). The Importance of Long- and Short-Acting Pharmacological Treatment Options for Time Use and Quality of Life in Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder: An Observational, Cross-Sectional, Survey-Based Study. In principle acceptance of Version 2 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/vbpjg
The Importance of Long- and Short-Acting Pharmacological Treatment Options for Time Use and Quality of Life in Individuals with Opioid Use Disorder: An Observational, Cross-Sectional, Survey-Based StudyMartin Trøstheim, Siri Leknes, Kristin K. Solli, Molly Carlyle, Gernot Ernst, Marie Eikemo<p><strong>Background. </strong>Pharmacological treatment for opioid use disorder with new, long-acting medications (e.g., injectable and implantable buprenorphine) frees up a considerable amount of patients’ time otherwise spent seeking illicit o...Medical Sciences, Social sciencesAndrew Jones Chris Chambers, Cathy Montgomery2024-06-28 11:11:22 View
06 Feb 2025
STAGE 1

Disentangling the Influences of Curiosity and Active Exploration on Cognitive Map Formation

Investigating influences of curiosity and active exploration on spatial memory

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Alexandr Ten and 2 anonymous reviewers
A growing body of research suggests that feelings of curiosity are associated with better memory for new information. However, while curiosity has been broadly defined as an instrinsic drive to obtain information, much of this existing work has focused on learning of trivia facts or factual information, settings where people have relatively little freedom to actively explore aspects of the environment that generate those feelings of curiosity. In this Stage 1 manuscript, O'Donoghue, Cen, and Gruber (2025) propose to conduct an experiment to examine whether feelings of curiosity promote the formation of cognitive maps when exploring novel spatial environments. Participants will encounter a series of virtual rooms for which they report their level of curiosity before exploring each room. The experiment will compare groups of participants who can actively explore for themselves vs. passive observers of the same exploration patterns. The proposed analyses will examine whether anticipatory curiosity leads to better memory for the spatial environments for both active or passive participants, or if benefits to memory are mediated by active participants' ability to act of their feelings of curiosity through their exploration of the environment. The findings of the study will provide new insight into the mechanisms through which anticipatory curiosity enhances memory.
 
The Stage 1 submission was evaluated by three expert reviewers. After three 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/86r3x
 
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. O'Donoghue, E. M., Cen, D., & Gruber, M. (2025). Disentangling the Influences of Curiosity and Active Exploration on Cognitive Map Formation. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/86r3x
Disentangling the Influences of Curiosity and Active Exploration on Cognitive Map FormationEllen M. O'Donoghue, Danlu Cen, Matthias J. Gruber<p>Curiosity has long been assumed to promote exploration, and in turn, to support cognitive map formation. However, little research has directly investigated these claims. Recently, Cen et al. (2024) demonstrated that when participants feel more ...Social sciencesDouglas Markant2024-06-28 10:30:38 View
10 Jan 2025
STAGE 1
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Development and evaluation of a revised 20-item short version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale

Assessing Impulsivity Measurement (UPPS-P-20-R)

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Ivan Ropovik and Orestis Zavlis
Impulsivity, as a construct, operates by an established history with various models and theories (Leshem & Glicksohn 2007) having accumulated evidence of relevance especially for mental disorders. One of the dominant models, the Impulsive Behavior Model, is conventionally measured in survey studies with UPPS-P scales, a short version of which was recently assessed in a large cross-cultural project (Fournier et al. 2024). In the present study, Fournier and colleagues (2025) aim to further test the revised 20-item scale in English via a three-phase protocol involving evaluations of construct validity, internal consistency reliability, test-retest reliability, convergent validity, and criterion validity. As such, the study contributes to ongoing important development of useful and up-to-date survey scales, which can help researchers avoid measurement issues (Flake & Fried 2020) in various fields where, in this case, impulsivity plays a role.
 
The study was reviewed over three rounds by two reviewers, with respective topic and methods expertise. Based on detailed responses to reviewers’ feedback and the recommender’s comments on the construct, the recommender judged that the manuscript met the Stage 1 criteria and therefore awarded in-principle acceptance.
 
URL to the preregistered Stage 1 protocol: https://osf.io/wevc4 (under temporary private embargo)

Level of bias control achieved: Level 6. No part of the data or evidence that will be used to answer the research question yet exists and no part will be generated until after IPA.
 
List of eligible PCI-RR-friendly journals:
 
 
References
 
1. Flake, J. K. & Fried, E. I. (2020). Measurement schmeasurement: Questionable measurement practices and how to avoid them. Advances in Methods and Practices in Psychological Science, 3, 456-465. https://doi.org/10.1177/2515245920952393
 
2. Fournier, L., Bőthe, … & Billieux, J. (2024). Evaluating the factor structure and measurement invariance of the 20-item short version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale across multiple countries, languages, and gender identities. Assessment, 10731911241259560. https://doi.org/10.1177/10731911241259560
 
3. Fournier, L., Heeren, A., Baggio, S., Clark, L., Verdejo-García, A., Perales J.C., Billieux J. (2025) Development and evaluation of a revised 20-item short version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale. In principle acceptance of Version 3 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/wevc4
 
4. Leshem, R. & Glicksohn, J. (2007). The construct of impulsivity revisited. Personality and individual Differences, 43, 681-691. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.paid.2007.01.015
Development and evaluation of a revised 20-item short version of the UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior ScaleLoïs Fournier, Alexandre Heeren, Stéphanie Baggio, Luke Clark, Antonio Verdejo-García, José C. Perales, Joël Billieux<p style="text-align: justify;">The UPPS-P Impulsive Behavior Scale is a well-established psychometric instrument for assessing impulsivity, a key psychological construct transdiagnostically involved in the etiology of numerous psychiatric and neu...Social sciencesVeli-Matti Karhulahti Ivan Ropovik 2024-06-27 17:47:17 View
22 Nov 2024
STAGE 2
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The capacity of response training to help resist the consumption of sugary drinks

Gamified response training with sugary drinks does not facilitate adherence to a restrictive diet

Recommended by ORCID_LOGO based on reviews by Matthias Aulbach and Pieter Van Dessel
Many people nowadays struggle with maintaining a healthy diet. Despite the intentions to eat healthily, they often over-consume highly palatable yet nutrient-poor foods and drinks, which in turn can lead to many health problems. There is therefore a need to develop tools that can help people resist the (over-)consumption of such foods and drinks. 

Previous work has shown that training people to execute certain motor responses toward food items can modify their liking for these items, which may also influence their subsequent consumption behavior. Based on these findings, Najberg et al. (2023) developed a mobile game that combined two food-related response training tasks, namely the go/no-go training (Veling et al., 2017) and the cue-approach training (Schonberg et al., 2014). The experimental group was trained to consistently inhibit their responses toward sugary drinks in the go/no-go training, and consistently respond to water items in the cue-approach training (i.e., 100% consistent mapping). In the control group, the mapping between an item and response requirement was 50%, such that participants executed both go and no-go responses toward sugary drinks and water. Najberg et al. (2023) found that after the training, the experimental group reported more reduction in liking for sugary drinks and more increase in liking for water items compared to the control group. However, both groups showed equivalent reduction in self-reported consumption of sugary drinks. 

Using the same design (i.e., 100% vs. 50% consistency), in the current study, Najberg et al. (2024) further examined whether the combined go/no-go and cue-approach training game could help people resist the consumption of sugary drinks. Participants were divided into the experimental and control group (N = 100 and 92, respectively), and received the respective training for a minimum of seven days (and up to 20 days). After completing the training, they were asked to avoid the trained sugary drinks. The number of days in which they reported to successfully adhere to this restrictive diet was used as the main dependent variable. Contrary to their predictions, the two groups did not differ in how long they resisted the consumption of sugary drinks after training. Both groups showed equivalent reductions in liking for sugary drinks (contrary to the finding in Najberg et al., 2023), but this reduction in liking was not correlated with the number of successful days of diet in the experimental group. Lastly, those who trained for more days in the experimental group also adhered to the diet for a longer duration, but this correlation might be explained by differences in motivation across individuals.

Together, these results suggest that consistently withholding responses toward sugary drinks and responding to water items does not help people resist the consumption of sugary drinks, compared to a control intervention in which the mapping is 50%. More research is therefore needed to test the effectiveness of food-related response training in changing consumption behavior outside of laboratory contexts.

The Stage 2 manuscript was evaluated over three rounds of review by two expert reviewers who also assessed the Stage 1 manuscript. Following detailed responses to the recommender and the reviewers’ 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/97aez

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. Najberg, H., Mouthon, M., Coppin, G., & Spierer, L. (2023). Reduction in sugar drink valuation and consumption with gamified executive control training. Scientific Reports, 13, 10659. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-023-36859-x
 
2. Veling, H., Lawrence, N. S., Chen, Z., van Koningsbruggen, G. M., & Holland, R. W. (2017). What Is Trained During Food Go/No-Go Training? A Review Focusing on Mechanisms and a Research Agenda. Current Addiction Reports, 4, 35–41. https://doi.org/10.1007/s40429-017-0131-5
 
3. Schonberg, T., Bakkour, A., Hover, A. M., Mumford, J. A., Nagar, L., Perez, J., & Poldrack, R. A. (2014). Changing value through cued approach: An automatic mechanism of behavior change. Nature Neuroscience, 17, 625–630. https://doi.org/10.1038/nn.3673

4. Najberg, H., Tapparel, M., & Spierer, L. (2024). The capacity of response training to help resist the consumption of sugary drinks [Stage 2]. Acceptance of Version 4 by Peer Community in Registered Reports. https://osf.io/eu7j4?view_only=4934c0215f2943cfb42e019792a30b53
The capacity of response training to help resist the consumption of sugary drinksHugo Najberg, Malika Tapparel, Lucas Spierer<p style="text-align: justify;">Food response training has been shown to reduce the reported value of palatable food items. These approaches may thus help to reduce unhealthy (over)consumption behaviors and its related diseases. Yet, whether and h...Medical Sciences, Social sciencesZhang Chen2024-06-26 11:41:16 View