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Does everything come in twos? Problems with dual-process theories
Dual process theories are everywhere in psychology [zotpressInText item=”{5421944:A45HTJM4}”]. From decision making to emotions, the idea that complex cognitive phenomena can be categorised into two classes with specific common features is very alluring. [zotpressInText item=”{5421944:DT8HLGCV}” format=”%a% (%d%, %p%)”] identified psychologists’ penchant for dichotomies (nature vs nurture etc.) but this dichotomisation began with the cognitive revolution.…
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Why every aspiring psychologist (academic?) should write blog posts
Writing is one of the most important aspects of any academic or practicicing psychologist’s work life. Crafting research papers for both and writing reports for practicising psychologists are the bread and butter of these professions. But good writing takes time to develop. Very few are naturally excellent writers. For the rest of us, we have…
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Hurry up and wait: preprints and the speed of science
I think preprints are excellent. Sharing research without waiting for journals to publish it is a great way to spread valuable work. There are many articles [zotpressInText item=”{5421944:CLLX3DW6},{5421944:SUGB2BTE}”] and papers [zotpressInText item=”{5421944:6D66YSSE},{5421944:E2UBQLN5}”] highlighting the strengths and weaknesses of preprints, so I won’t rehash those arguments here. My positive stance towards preprints is becoming stronger the…
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Summary of a critical discussion of preregistration and Registered Reports
Preregistration and Registered Reports (RRs) are rapidly gaining popularity as a means of asking rigorous scientific questions. I think preregistration, and especially RRs, will positively shape how psychologists engage in scientific work. But critically discussing them is vital for our collective understanding. To this end, I was invited to the Cambridge ReproducibiliTea meeting to chat…
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Should we retire nominal, ordinal, interval, & ratio levels of measurement?
One of the first things all psychology students are taught is levels of measurement. Every student must wrap their heads around the four different forms data can take: nominal, ordinal, interval, or ratio. These are the bedrock of a lot of students’ understanding of measurement, including mine. I didn’t realise there were questions about their…
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Best reads of 2019
This is a collection of some of the best things I’ve read this year. Organised alphabetically, they cover a wide range of topics. Hopefully you’ll find them as interesting as I did! Comment saying what you really enjoyed reading, I’ll check it out, and may even add it to my list. Culture ‘Most Money Advice…
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Social media debates and social capital
I like science Twitter. Science social media has pretty much been my education for all things related to statistics, metascience, and philosophy of science. I’ve talked with great people and been exposed to ideas I would almost certainly never encountered otherwise. But the way it, and all mediums through which scientific ideas are informally discussed,…
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Does calling a study “under powered” help or hinder criticism?
A common criticism of research (past and present) is that it’s “under powered” or “has low power”. What this typically means is the study doesn’t have many participants (typically between 5 and 40) and so has low statistical power for most effect sizes in psychology . But something being “under powered” only makes sense when…
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Is there good evidence for the ‘paradox of choice’?
The paradox of choice seems relevant in our modern consumer culture. Though it goes by many names[note]Choice overload, overchoice.[/note] it was popularised by Barry Schwartz in his 2004 book ‘The Paradox of Choice – Why More Is Less’. The concept as was initially proposed is straightforward: when presented with a large number of options, consumers…
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ReproducibiliTea interview
I was recently interviewed by Amy Orben, Sophia Crüwell, and Sam Parsons for their excellent podcast ‘ReproducibiliTea’. We talked a little bit about myself before getting into some more interesting topics: open science, educational psychology, how the two interact (or how they don’t), and the developing nuance in understanding around open science practices. The link…
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