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Experimental psychology results may not be as strong as originally claimed




A project that reproduced 100 experimental psychology studies found the results of more than 60 were not as strong as researchers originally claimed.

A study, over a period of years from 2011, that attempted to conduct exactly the same experiments as 100 psychology studies published in psychology journals were often unable to replicate them (The Strait Times, August 29, 2015).  The results of this study appear in the Science journal. The psychology studies replicated included tests of personality, relationships, learning, free will, and memory. More than 60 studies did not have the same results as the published results.

A psychologist from the University of Virginia conducted the Reproducibility Project. His team recruited more than 250 researchers, identified 100 studies published in 2008 in psychology journals, and rigorously reconstructed each of them in collaboration with the original researchers.

The Reproducibiltiy Project found no evidence of fraud or definitively false results. Instead, the Reproducibiltiy Project found that the published results were ‘not as strong’ as originally claimed.


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