The sixteenth OSCR ReproducibiliTea journal club will take place on May 19th at 11:00 CEST. Our special guest will be Dr. Aba Szollosi, postdoctoral researcher in the Bramley Lab at the University of Edinburgh.

Aba will guide us through one of his papers1:

Szollosi, A., & Donkin, C. (2021). Arrested Theory Development: The Misguided Distinction Between Exploratory and Confirmatory Research. Perspectives on Psychological Science. https://doi.org/10.1177/1745691620966796

In this paper, the authors argue that the exploratory-confirmatory distinction shifts the focus away from the real issues underlying replicability problems in psychology – that replication is expected on the basis of overly flexible theories, which only assert (but do not explain why) replication should be expected. They also argue that recently proposed method-oriented solutions based on this distinction cannot solve the issues associated with flexible theorising (or can only do so indirectly and inefficiently).

As an illustrative example, Aba will use a recent Registered Replication Report of the (non-replicable) finding that people perform better on a general-knowledge quiz after they are asked to imagine themselves as university professors compared to when they imagine themselves as soccer hooligans. He will explain how and why his thinking changed on the utility of method-oriented solutions since participating in this replication effort and discuss alternative solutions to replicability problems which he now finds more useful.

An invitation via Outlook calendar has been sent to researchers in the OSCR mailing list2. This email includes a link to join the meeting remotely using Zoom. Click on the link, insert the password provided in the invitation mail, and you will join the call.

During the Zoom meeting, please follow these guidelines:

  • wear headphones
  • mute your microphone
  • video is optional (in case of connection issues, you may be asked to turn it off)
  • pay attention to the moderator (which will be Antonio)
  • if you have questions
    • click on the Raise Hand button and the moderator will unmute you; or
    • write down your question in the chat and the moderator will read it
  • arrive a few minutes before the beginning of the call, to familiarize with the online environment and solve possible technical issues

Please remember that attendees of every OSCR event (in-person or online) are required to follow our Code of Conduct.

Take care,

Aba Szollosi and Antonio Schettino

  1. The paper will be available on our OSF repository.↩︎

  2. If you are not part of the OSCR mailing lists but would like to join, please contact Antonio.↩︎