Collaborative open science as a way to reproducibility and new insights in primate cognition research
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In: Japanese Psychological Review, Vol. 62, No. 3, 31.10.2019, p. 205-220.
Research output: Journal contributions › Journal articles › Research › peer-review
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TY - JOUR
T1 - Collaborative open science as a way to reproducibility and new insights in primate cognition research
AU - Altschul, Drew
AU - Beran, Michael J.
AU - Bohn, Manuel
AU - Caspar, Kai
AU - Fichtel, Claudia
AU - Försterling, Marlene
AU - Grebe, Nicholas
AU - Hernandez-Aguilar, R. Adriana
AU - Rodrigo, Alba Motes
AU - Proctor, Darby
AU - Sanchez-Amaro, Alejandro
AU - Szabelska, Anna
AU - Taylor, Derry
AU - van der Mescht, Joléne
AU - Völter, Christoph
AU - Watzek, Julia
AU - Simpson, Elizabeth
AU - Kwok, Sze Chai
PY - 2019/10/31
Y1 - 2019/10/31
N2 - The field of primate cognition studies how primates, including humans, perceive, process, store, retrieve, and use information to guide decision making and other behavior. Much of this research is motivated by a desire to understand how these abilities evolved. Large and diverse samples from a wide range of species are vital to achieving this goal. In reality, however, primate cognition research suffers from small sample sizes and is often limited to a handful of species, which constrains the evolutionary inferences we can draw. We conducted a systematic review of primate cognition research published between 2014 and 2019 to quantify the extent of this problem. Across 574 studies, the median sample size was 7 individuals. Less than 15% of primate species were studied at all, and only 19% of studies included more than one species. Further, the species that were studied varied widely in how much research attention they received, partly because a small number of test sites contributed most of the studies. These results suggest that the generalizability of primate cognition studies may be severely limited. Publication bias, questionable research practices, and a lack of replication attempts may exacerbate these problems. We describe the ManyPrimates project as one approach to overcoming some of these issues by establishing an infrastructure for large-scale collaboration in primate cognition research. Building on similar initiatives in other areas of psychology, this approach has already yielded one of the largest and most diverse primate samples to date and enables us to ask many research questions that can only be addressed through collaboration.
AB - The field of primate cognition studies how primates, including humans, perceive, process, store, retrieve, and use information to guide decision making and other behavior. Much of this research is motivated by a desire to understand how these abilities evolved. Large and diverse samples from a wide range of species are vital to achieving this goal. In reality, however, primate cognition research suffers from small sample sizes and is often limited to a handful of species, which constrains the evolutionary inferences we can draw. We conducted a systematic review of primate cognition research published between 2014 and 2019 to quantify the extent of this problem. Across 574 studies, the median sample size was 7 individuals. Less than 15% of primate species were studied at all, and only 19% of studies included more than one species. Further, the species that were studied varied widely in how much research attention they received, partly because a small number of test sites contributed most of the studies. These results suggest that the generalizability of primate cognition studies may be severely limited. Publication bias, questionable research practices, and a lack of replication attempts may exacerbate these problems. We describe the ManyPrimates project as one approach to overcoming some of these issues by establishing an infrastructure for large-scale collaboration in primate cognition research. Building on similar initiatives in other areas of psychology, this approach has already yielded one of the largest and most diverse primate samples to date and enables us to ask many research questions that can only be addressed through collaboration.
KW - Psychology
U2 - 10.24602/sjpr.62.3_205
DO - 10.24602/sjpr.62.3_205
M3 - Journal articles
VL - 62
SP - 205
EP - 220
JO - Japanese Psychological Review
JF - Japanese Psychological Review
SN - 2433-4650
IS - 3
ER -