Multidimensional Signals and Analytic Flexibility: Estimating Degrees of Freedom in Human-Speech Analyses

Abstract Recent empirical studies have highlighted the large degree of analytic flexibility in data analysis that can lead to substantially different conclusions based on the same data set. Thus, researchers have expressed their concerns that these researcher degrees of freedom might facilitate bias and can lead to claims that do not stand the test of time. Even greater flexibility is to be expected in fields in which the primary data lend themselves to a variety of possible operationalizations.

Protocol for a Remote Webcam-based Eye-Tracking Experiment for Examining Visual Attention to Tobacco Marketing Materials

Abstract Background: Eye-tracking provides an objective way to measure attention, which can advance researchers’ and policymakers’ understanding of tobacco marketing influences. The development of remote webcam-based eye-tracking technology, integrated with online crowdsourcing studies, may be a cost-effective and time-efficient alternative to laboratory-based eye-tracking methods. However, research is needed to evaluate the utility of remote eye-tracking methods. Objective: To detail the process of designing a remote webcam-based eye-tracking experiment and provide data on associations between participant characteristics and the outcomes of completing the experiment.

The effects of group counseling and self-affirmation on stigma and group relationship development: A replication and extension.

Abstract The stigma of seeking counseling and negative attitudes about counseling are primary barriers to its use. In the only known study examining the utility of attending a group counseling session to ameliorate stigma (no control group), participation was associated with reductions in self-stigma (Wade et al., 2011). Self-affirmation interventions have shown promising results in reducing stigma and promoting positive expectations about counseling, but no research has examined its effects on a counseling session.

Is this going to be on the test? Test expectancy moderates the disfluency effect with Sans Forgetica

Publication highlighting moderating effect of the perceptual disfluency effect.

Pupillometry reveals a more sustained pattern of effortful listening in older adults

Abstract Listening to speech in adverse conditions can be challenging and effortful, especially for older adults. This study examined age-related differences in effortful listening by recording changes in the task-evoked pupil response (TEPR; a physiological marker of listening effort) both at the level of sentence processing and over the entire course of a listening task. A total of 65 (32 young adults; 33 older adults) participants performed a speech recognition task in the presence of a competing talker, while moment-to-moment changes in pupil size were continuously monitored.

Sans Forgetica is not desirable for learning

Abstract Do students learn better with material that is perceptually hard to process? While evidence is equivocal on the matter, recent claims suggest that placing materials in Sans Forgetica, a perceptually difficult-to-process typeface, has positive impacts on student learning. Given the weak evidence for other similar perceptual disfluency effects, we examined the mnemonic effects of Sans Forgetica more closely in comparison to other learning strategies across three preregistered experiments.

Is a picture really worth a thousand words? Evaluating contributions of fluency and analytic processing in metacognitive judgements for pictures in foreign language vocabulary learning

Abstract Previous research shows that participants are overconfident in their ability to learn foreign language vocabulary from pictures compared with English translations. The current study explored whether this tendency is due to processing fluency or beliefs about learning. Using self-paced study of Swahili words paired with either picture cues or English translation cues, picture cues garnered higher confidence judgments but not faster study times, and this was true whether judgments of learning were made after a delay (Experiment 1) or immediately (Experiment 2).

GazeR: A package for processing gaze postion and pupil size data

Abstract Eye-tracking is widely used throughout the scientific community, from vision science and psycholinguistics to marketing and human-computer interaction. Surprisingly, there is little consistency and transparency in preprocessing steps, making replicability and reproducibility difficult. To increase replicability, reproducibility, and transparency, a package in R (a free and widely used statistical programming environment) called gazeR was created to read and preprocess two types of data: gaze position and pupil size.

A pupilometric examination of cognitive control in taxonomic and thematic semantic memory

Abstract Semantic cognition includes taxonomic and thematic relationships, as well as control systems to retrieve and manipulate semantic knowledge to suit specific tasks or contexts. A recent report (Thompson et al., 2017) suggested that retrieving thematic relationships (i.e., relations based on participation in the same event or scenarios) requires more effort or cognitive control, especially when the relevant relations are weak, than retrieving identity relations that are based on sensory-motor features.

Estimating effects of graded white matter damage and binary tract disconnection on post-stroke language impairment

Is replication something that we can achieve in every field? Herein we talk about the the limitations of replication in lesion symptom mapping research

Would disfluency by any other name still be disfluent? Examining the disfluency effect with cursive handwriting

Cursive can engender better memory, but how difficult the cursive is matters

Instructor fluency leads to higher confidence in learning, but not better learning

Instructor fluency on learning

Study strategies and beliefs about learning as a function of academic achievement and achievement goals

Examines the role of achievement goals and academic achievement on study habits

Eyes wide open: Pupil size as a proxy for inhibition in the masked-priming paradigm

Abstract A core assumption underlying competitive-network models of word recognition is that in order for a word to be recognized, the representations of competing orthographically similar words must be inhibited. This inhibitory mechanism is revealed in the masked-priming lexical-decision task (LDT) when responses to orthographically similar word prime–target pairs are slower than orthographically different word prime–target pairs (i.e., inhibitory priming). In English, however, behavioral evidence for inhibitory priming has been mixed.

The replication recipe: What makes for a convincing replication?

Abstract Psychological scientists have recently started to reconsider the importance of close replications in building a cumulative knowledge base; however, there is no consensus about what constitutes a convincing close replication study. To facilitate convincing close replication attempts we have developed a Replication Recipe, outlining standard criteria for a convincing close replication. Our Replication Recipe can be used by researchers, teachers, and students to conduct meaningful replication studies and integrate replications into their scholarly habits.