e-ISSN: Pending

Browse the failure-mode index

276 real negative results, null findings, and replication failures in Psychology · Negative / Null Result Report. Search the index →

WASTE indexes published research — it does not host or republish full papers. Each entry is a metadata record compiled from open scholarly databases; the abstract is shown in full only where the paper is openly licensed, otherwise a short excerpt under fair use. Classifications are automated and approximate.

Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Enhancing perceptual and attentional skills requires common demands between the action video games and transfer tasks

Adam Oei, Michael D. Patterson · 2015 · Frontiers in Psychology

Despite increasing evidence that shows action video game play improves perceptual and cognitive skills, the mechanisms of transfer are not well-understood. In line with previous work, we suggest that transfer is dependent upon common demands between the game and transfer task. In the current study, participants played one of four action games with varying speed, visual, and attentional demands for 20 h. We examined whether training enhanced performance for attentional blink, selective attention, attending to multiple items, visual search and auditory detection. Non-gamers who played the game (

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Attention bias modification: the Emperor's new suit?

Paul M.G. Emmelkamp · 2012 · BMC Medicine

A series of primarily laboratory-based studies found attention bias modification in socially anxious participants to lead to reduced anxiety. It is argued that the failure to replicate the positive results of attention bias modification in the study of Carlbring et al. may be due to reasons other than the application through the Internet. A number of controlled studies failed to replicate the positive effects of attention bias modification in clinically rather than subclinically socially anxious subjects. Given the lack of robust evidence for attention bias modification in clinically socially

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

The architecture of psychological well‐being: A network analysis study of the Ryff Psychological Well‐Being Scale

Ana Blasco‐Belled, Carles Alsinet · 2022 · Scandinavian Journal of Psychology

The proliferation of mental health research is orienting its efforts towards the exploration of psychological well-being. One of the main burdens is the measurement challenges reported by the widely used Psychological Well-Being Scale…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

A randomized controlled trial of a smartphone-based well-being training in public school system employees during the COVID-19 pandemic.

Matthew J. Hirshberg, Corrina Frye, Cortland J. Dahl et al. · 2022 · Journal of Educational Psychology

s<.031 corrected except mindful action at follow-up). We found no evidence for elevated adverse events and the HMP was equally effective among participants with elevated baseline anxiety and depressive symptoms. These data suggest that the…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Socioscientific Decision Making in the Science Classroom: The Effect of Embedded Metacognitive Instructions on Students' Learning Outcomes

Sabina Eggert, Frauke Ostermeyer, Marcus Hasselhorn et al. · 2013 · Education Research International

The purpose of the present study was to examine the effects of cooperative training strategies to enhance students' socioscientific decision making as well as their metacognitive skills in the science classroom. Socioscientific decision making refers to both “describing socioscientific issues” as well as “developing and evaluating solutions” to socioscientific issues. We investigated two cooperative training strategies which differed with respect to embedded metacognitive instructions that were developed on the basis of the IMPROVE method. Participants were 360 senior high school students who

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

A test of Hofstede's model of culture following his own approach

Michael Minkov, Anneli Kaasa · 2020 · Cross Cultural & Strategic Management

Purpose Recent studies exposed serious issues with Hofstede's popular model of culture, especially his uncertainty avoidance (UA) and masculinity-femininity (MAS–FEM) dimensions. However those studies did not focus on work-related issues…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

The effects of time frames on self-report

Marta Walentynowicz, Stefan Schneider, Arthur A. Stone · 2018 · PLoS ONE

BACKGROUND: The degree to which episodic and semantic memory processes contribute to retrospective self-reports have been shown to depend on the length of reporting period. Robinson and Clore (2002) argued that when the amount of accessible detail decreases due to longer reporting periods, an episodic retrieval strategy is abandoned in favor of a semantic retrieval strategy. The current study further examines this shift between retrieval strategies by conceptually replicating the model of Robinson and Clore (2002) for both emotions and symptoms and by attempting to estimate the exact moment of

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Automatic versus Voluntary Motor Imitation: Effect of Visual Context and Stimulus Velocity

Ambra Bisio, Natale Stucchi, Marco Jacono et al. · 2010 · PLoS ONE

Automatic imitation is the tendency to reproduce observed actions involuntarily. Though this topic has been widely treated, at present little is known about the automatic imitation of the kinematic features of an observed movement. The present study was designed to understand if the kinematics of a previously seen stimulus primes the executed action, and if this effect is sensitive to the kinds of stimuli presented. We proposed a simple imitation paradigm in which a dot or a human demonstrator moved in front of the participant who was instructed either to reach the final position of the stimul

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

A Practice-Based Professional Development Program to Support Scientific Argumentation From Evidence in the Elementary Classroom

Evan J. Fishman, Hilda Borko, Jonathan Osborne et al. · 2017 · Journal of Science Teacher Education

Considerable evidence suggests that dialogical interaction in the classroom promotes students’ scientific knowledge building and reasoning. Hence, scientific argumentation is recognized as a central component of the Next Generation Science…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Absence of structural brain changes from mindfulness-based stress reduction: Two combined randomized controlled trials

Tammi R. A. Kral, Kaley Davis, Cole Korponay et al. · 2022 · Science Advances

Studies purporting to show changes in brain structure following the popular, 8-week mindfulness-based stress reduction (MBSR) course are widely referenced despite major methodological limitations. Here, we present findings from a large, combined dataset of two, three-arm randomized controlled trials with active and waitlist (WL) control groups. Meditation-naïve participants ( n = 218) completed structural magnetic resonance imaging scans during two visits: baseline and postintervention period. After baseline, participants were randomly assigned to WL ( n = 70), an 8-week MBSR program ( n = 75)

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Theory-Based Interventions Combining Mental Simulation and Planning Techniques to Improve Physical Activity: Null Results from Two Randomized Controlled Trials

Carine Meslot, Aurélie Gauchet, B. Allenet et al. · 2016 · Frontiers in Psychology

Interventions to assist individuals in initiating and maintaining regular participation in physical activity are not always effective. Psychological and behavioural theories advocate the importance of both motivation and volition in interventions to change health behaviour. Interventions adopting self-regulation strategies that foster motivational and volitional components may, therefore, have utility in promoting regular physical activity participation. We tested the efficacy of an intervention adopting motivational (mental simulation) and volitional (implementation intentions) components to

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

Human Performance Benefits of The Automation Transparency Design Principle

Gyrd Skraaning, Greg A. Jamieson · 2019 · Human Factors The Journal of the Human Factors and Ergonomics Society

OBJECTIVE: Test the automation transparency design principle using a full-scope nuclear power plant simulator. BACKGROUND: Automation transparency is a long-held human factors design principle espousing that the responsibilities,…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

Comparing learning from observing and from human tutoring.

Kasia Müldner, Rachel Lam, T. H. Michelene · 2013 · Journal of Educational Psychology

A promising instructional approach corresponds to learning by observing others learn (i.e., by watching tutorial dialogue between a tutor and tutee). However, more work is needed to understand this approach’s pedagogical utility. Thus, in…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

No ego-depletion effect without a good control task

Thomas Mangin, Nathalie André, Abdelrhani Benraïss et al. · 2021 · Psychology of sport and exercise

The ego-depletion effect refers to a temporary failure of self-control exertion after first performing an effortful task. This phenomenon has experienced a replication crisis in the past few years. In the present series of experiments, we…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

How do you feel? Preverbal infants match negative emotions to events.

Ashley L. Ruba, Andrew N. Meltzoff, Betty M. Repacholi · 2019 · Developmental Psychology

There is extensive disagreement as to whether preverbal infants have conceptual categories for different emotions (e.g., anger vs. disgust). In addition, few studies have examined whether infants have conceptual categories of emotions…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

A creative destruction approach to replication: Implicit work and sex morality across cultures

Warren Tierney, Jay H. Hardy, Charles R. Ebersole et al. · 2020 · Journal of Experimental Social Psychology

How can we maximize what is learned from a replication study? In the creative destruction approach to replication, the original hypothesis is compared not only to the null hypothesis, but also to predictions derived from multiple alternative theoretical accounts of the phenomenon. To this end, new populations and measures are included in the design in addition to the original ones, to help determine which theory best accounts for the results across multiple key outcomes and contexts. The present pre-registered empirical project compared the Implicit Puritanism account of intuitive work and sex

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

Prospective Cohort Study Investigating Changes in Body Image, Quality of Life, and Self-Esteem Following Minimally Invasive Cosmetic Procedures

Joseph F. Sobanko, Julia Dai, Joel M. Gelfand et al. · 2018 · Dermatologic Surgery

BACKGROUND: Minimally invasive cosmetic injectable procedures are increasingly common. However, a few studies have investigated changes in psychosocial functioning following these treatments. OBJECTIVE: To assess changes in body image,…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Neither action nor phonological video games make dyslexic children read better

Magdalena Łuniewska, Katarzyna Chyl, Agnieszka Dębska et al. · 2018 · Scientific Reports

The prevalence and long-term consequences of dyslexia make it crucial to look for effective and efficient ways of its therapy. Action video games (AVG) were implied as a possible remedy for difficulties in reading in Italian and English-speaking children. However, the studies examining the effectiveness of AVG application in dyslexia suffered from significant methodological weaknesses such as small sample sizes and lack of a control group with no intervention. In our study, we tested how two forms of training: based on AVG and on phonological non-action video games (PNAVG), affect reading in a

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Effectiveness of a Web-based and Mobile Therapy Chatbot on Anxiety and Depressive Symptoms in Subclinical Young Adults: Randomized Controlled Trial

Stanisław Karkosz, Robert Szymański, Katarzyna Sanna et al. · 2023 · JMIR Formative Research

BACKGROUND: There has been an increased need to provide specialized help for people with depressive and anxiety symptoms, particularly teenagers and young adults. There is evidence from a 2-week intervention that chatbots (eg, Woebot) are effective in reducing depression and anxiety, an effect that was not detected in the control group that was provided self-help materials. Although chatbots are a promising solution, there is limited scientific evidence for the efficacy of agent-guided cognitive behavioral therapy (CBT) outside the English language, especially for highly inflected languages. O

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

A test of the micro‐expressions training tool: Does it improve lie detection?

Sarah Jordan, Laure Brimbal, David B. Wallace et al. · 2019 · Journal of Investigative Psychology and Offender Profiling

Abstract The purpose of the study was to examine the effectiveness of the micro‐expressions training tool (METT) in identifying and using micro‐expressions to improve lie detection. Participants ( n = 90) were randomly assigned to receive…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportPsychology

Can Grey parrots (Psittacus erithacus) succeed on a “complex” foraging task failed by nonhuman primates (Pan troglodytes, Pongo abelii, Sapajus apella) but solved by wrasse fish (Labroides dimidiatus)?

Irene M. Pepperberg, Leigh Ann Hartsfield · 2014 · Journal of comparative psychology

Linking specific cognitive abilities of nonhuman species on a laboratory task to their evolutionary history-ecological niche can be a fruitful exercise in comparative psychology. Crucial issues, however, are the choice of task, the…

View details →
Negative / Null Result ReportOpen accessPsychology

Moderators of wellbeing interventions: Why do some people respond more positively than others?

Adele Wang, S. Katherine Nelson, Kristin Layous et al. · 2017 · PLoS ONE

Interventions rarely have a universal effect on all individuals. Reasons ranging from participant characteristics, context and fidelity of intervention completion could cause some people to respond more positively than others. Understanding these individual differences in intervention response may provide clues to the mechanisms behind the intervention, as well as inform future designs to make interventions maximally beneficial for all. Here we focus on an intervention designed to improve adolescent wellbeing, and explore potential moderators using a representative and well-powered sample. 16-

View details →