Inaction inertia occurs when one is less likely to take an attractive opportunity, after refusing an even more attractive opportunity. In their experiment, van Putten and colleagues (2007) tried to...Show moreInaction inertia occurs when one is less likely to take an attractive opportunity, after refusing an even more attractive opportunity. In their experiment, van Putten and colleagues (2007) tried to decouple the inaction inertia effect by using ambiguous information. Their results yielded that ambiguous information did in fact decouple. However, the authors came to these conclusions by using optional stopping and p-hacking. This influenced the reliability of the results, so we decided to replicate this study, for good research practices and because it can give us valuable insight into how decoupling works when given an attractive offer. We made use of the replication recipe of Brandt and colleagues (2014) to conduct the replication.Show less
Psychological research has mostly been focused on finding an explanation for behavior, rather than on finding a model that accurately predicts behavior. This approach often results in the use of...Show morePsychological research has mostly been focused on finding an explanation for behavior, rather than on finding a model that accurately predicts behavior. This approach often results in the use of models that fit very well to the sample used for testing but are difficult to generalize to new samples. Similarly, models are often too complex and take into consideration too many variables. Classically, replications would be performed to account for these issues. This is however an expensive, time-consuming, and laborious process, leading to the perpetuation of nonreplicated studies in psychology. This thesis presents a possible solution stemming from the field of machine learning, namely using cross-validation. With cross-validation, the predictive performance of a model can be assessed using only one dataset. This thesis examined the use of cross-validation by applying it over an existing dataset and comparing its output to the output of conventional null-hypothesis testing. The results show that using cross-validation reduces the likelihood of making overly optimistic claims, by reducing the chances of using excessively complex models unable to generalize to new samples. Furthermore, cross-validation gives the opportunity to examine the predictability of models while preserving the explanatory power. It therefore proves to be a useful tool in the field of psychological research.Show less
Psychological science has been plagued by a history of studies with low statistical power. The common solution for this issue has been to increase the sample sizes of studies but this also...Show morePsychological science has been plagued by a history of studies with low statistical power. The common solution for this issue has been to increase the sample sizes of studies but this also increases time and money spent. Another solution that has been mostly ignored by the scientific community is the use of sequential procedures for statistical analysis. Sequential procedures allow the researcher to analyse the data multiple times as new participants are recruited. So, several analyses are done until the null hypothesis is either accepted or rejected. In practice, this might lead to efficiency gains in the form of smaller sample sizes. The statistical properties of sequential procedures have been found to be adequate based on simulation studies. However, there is a lack of information about the efficiency gains and consistency of these procedures with actual psychological data. The current study aims to evaluate the efficiency and consistency of the group sequential (GS) procedure and the sequential probability ratio test (SPRT) with real data. Efficiency is the reduction in sample sizes while consistency refers to (in)congruence between the decision based on the sequential procedure and the conventional procedure. We re-analysed an existing multi-lab registered replication report (RRR) namely the study by Verschuere et al. (2018) using the GS procedure and SPRT procedure. Using these procedures, efficiency gains ranging from 27% to 62% were found. The GS procedure outperformed the SPRT in terms of efficiency. In the labs that showed efficiency gains, the decision regarding the null hypothesis was the same compared to the decision based on the conventional procedure. Taken together, the sequential procedures yielded the same overall conclusion as Verschuere et al., but at a considerably smaller sample size. This shows the potential of these procedures for psychological science as a whole.Show less
Inaction inertia occurs when one is less likely to take an attractive opportunity, after refusing an even more attractive opportunity. In their experiment, van Putten and colleagues (2007) tried to...Show moreInaction inertia occurs when one is less likely to take an attractive opportunity, after refusing an even more attractive opportunity. In their experiment, van Putten and colleagues (2007) tried to decouple the inaction inertia effect by using ambiguous information. Their results yielded that ambiguous information did in fact decouple. However, the authors came to these conclusions by using optional stopping and p-hacking. This influenced the reliability of the results, so we decided to replicate this study, for good research practices and because it can give us valuable insight into how decoupling works when given an attractive offer. We made use of the replication recipe of Brandt and colleagues (2014) to conduct the replication.Show less
Flexibility in the decisions researchers make during their research can lead to false positive findings. Due to low transparency in published papers in the field of psychology, the amount of...Show moreFlexibility in the decisions researchers make during their research can lead to false positive findings. Due to low transparency in published papers in the field of psychology, the amount of flexibility authors had is often unclear. In the current thesis, in a first step a quantitative measure of Replication Value is applied to a random set of studies (n = 1257) from Social Psychology, using citation count as a proxy for impact and sample size as a proxy for uncertainty. This Replication Value has been suggested as an indicator of how worthwhile it is to replicate a study (see Isager et al., in press), and can be applied to a large number of studies due to its quantitative approach. However, Replication Value is based on solely on quantitative proxies. Therefore, it is necessary to also manually examine papers. In a second step of the current thesis, it is manually explored whether the uncertainty that researchers have when making choices during their research can become clearer by mapping them. Therefore, the studies with the highest Replication Values (n = 10), with the median Replication Values (n = 10), and with the lowest Replication Values (n = 10) were examined on their reporting transparency and potential Researcher Degrees of Freedom. A detailed analysis of the first results indicated that the qualitative analysis of the Researcher Degrees of Freedom of original researchers is helpful to in selecting which study to replicate after making a larger selection based on RV. The findings from this exploratory research are discussed in the context of the field of Social Psychology, with an emphasis on how researchers looking to select a target for replication can use our DFS to map the uncertainty of original work.Show less
This thesis concerns the importance of replication studies in agent-based modelling, specifically in the field of archaeology. As a case study, the MERCURY model by Brughmans and Poblome is...Show moreThis thesis concerns the importance of replication studies in agent-based modelling, specifically in the field of archaeology. As a case study, the MERCURY model by Brughmans and Poblome is replicated. In the first chapter, a background is given to ABM in general, as well as to replication and its importance and scarcity. Replication allows us to confirm the findings of existing ABM models, or reject them. The second chapter gives an abstract of Brughmans and Poblome’s research. It includes the archaeological background to their research, a precise description of the MERCURY model and a summary of Brughmans and Poblome’s conclusions. In chapter three, the process of replicating MERCURY is explained. Each version of the replication is described in great detail. This final version is statistically compared to the original model. The replication was found to be, for the most part, statistically equivalent to the original. The source of the despondencies between the various versions of the replication and the original model were due to inaccuracies in the description of the model as well as due to my own coding mistakes. Chapter four includes a brief discussion of existing criticism of the MERCURY model, as well as my own critiques. These critiques are mostly concern the details of the model and the way the authors interpreted their data. Additional experiments are performed to complement the experiments in the original study. I conclude that some of the issues I identify could weaken the original authors’ conclusions. The relation of my replication of MERCURY to other replication studies is discussed in chapter five. The final chapter my research questions are answered. I also shortly discuss how my experiences with replication could help future researches who want to publish agent-based models or replication studies.Show less
This thesis contains the results of my research on the topic of the Austrian town of Hallstatt and its Chinese replica Hallstatt see. My research will introduce China’s predilection for replicating...Show moreThis thesis contains the results of my research on the topic of the Austrian town of Hallstatt and its Chinese replica Hallstatt see. My research will introduce China’s predilection for replicating some of the biggest architectural achievements of the West by examining the case of Hallstatt. The main goal of this research will be to find out to what extent the Chinese copy town has influenced Hallstatt to date, regarding economy, tourism, atmosphere and quality of life. In that regard I especially focus on how the residents of the original Hallstatt have reacted to the fact that their town has been copied in China without consultation or permission. Furthermore, this thesis will discuss the history of copying in China, the emerging ‘duplitecture’ (copied architecture) trend in China and the Chinese meanings associated with the copy - with the aim of providing a complete overview of the copy phenomenon. Methodically, I will gather information by conducting empirical research in the form of an online questionnaire, which will be submitted to the residents of the Hallstatt area. Apart from that a lot of attention will be devoted to theory and the academic debate concerning the topic.Show less
