Collabra: Psychology seeks applications for Editor-in-Chief

Collabra: Psychology, the official journal of the Society for the Improvement of Psychological Science, is a mission-driven Open Access (OA) journal from the University of California Press that sha…

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Anything Goes: Statistical Interactions Without Substantive Theory - Computational Brain & Behavior

Conditional effects, or interaction effects, do not imply multiplicative effects. However, product terms are the default method for modeling such conditional effects in psychological research. As a result, theoretically plausible conditional effects may go undetected when the functional form is misspecified. Our study had two objectives: (1) evaluate the extent to which non-linear phenomena can be identified as spurious multiplicative (i.e., standard) interaction terms in linear models, (2) assess how well linear models capture stepwise conditional effects. In Study 1, we examined spurious interactions from non-linear main effects. We found that traditional interaction terms were associated with increased Type-I error rates and small effect sizes. Importantly, this was also the case when the predictors were uncorrelated, indicating a mechanism beyond collinearity. Additionally, we found that, if captured, the spurious interaction effects did reduce prediction error on the population level. In Study 2, we simulated genuine conditional effects, following a stepwise pattern. When effects were monotonic, product terms performed adequately, however if the conditional effect is non-monotonic a traditional interaction term in a linear model does not sufficiently capture such an effect. We conclude that relying solely on traditional interaction terms in linear models can be misleading and the failure to replicate interaction effects may partly reflect a specification crisis: Researchers default to one functional form (multiplication) while the underlying theory may dictate a different form, creating a systematic mismatch between theory and model. To validly investigate conditional effects, researchers should specify and justify the expected functional form a priori.

doi.org

Application Form Senior Editor Clinical/Associate Editor Social Section Collabra: Psychology

Starting from 1 July 2026, Collabra: Psychology is on the look-out for a new senior editor for the clinical section as well as several new associate editors for the social section. If you are interest...

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Application Form Senior Editor Clinical/Associate Editor Social Section Collabra: Psychology

Starting from 1 July 2026, Collabra: Psychology is on the look-out for a new senior editor for the clinical section as well as several new associate editors for the social section. If you are interest...

docs.google.com

Application Form Senior Editor Clinical/Associate Editor Social Section Collabra: Psychology

Starting from 1 July 2026, Collabra: Psychology is on the look-out for a new senior editor for the clinical section as well as several new associate editors for the social section. If you are interest...

forms.gle

Application Form Senior Editor Clinical/Associate Editor Social Section Collabra: Psychology

Starting from 1 July 2026, Collabra: Psychology is on the look-out for a new senior editor for the clinical section as well as several new associate editors for the social section. If you are interest...

forms.gle

Application Form Senior Editor Clinical/Associate Editor Social Section Collabra: Psychology

Starting from 1 July 2026, Collabra: Psychology is on the look-out for a new senior editor for the clinical section as well as several new associate editors for the social section. If you are interest...

forms.gle

Core principles of responsible generative AI usage in research - AI and Ethics

In a rapidly evolving Generative Artificial Intelligence (GenAI) landscape, researchers, policymakers, and publishers have to continuously redefine responsible research practices. To ensure guidance o...

link.springer.com

Multiverse simulation to explore the impact of analytical choices on type I and type II errors in a reaction time study - Behavior Research Methods

Researcher degrees of freedom in data analysis present significant challenges in social sciences, where different analytical decisions can lead to varying conclusions. In this work, we propose an exam...

link.springer.com

Sage Journals: Discover world-class research

Subscription and open access journals from Sage, the world's leading independent academic publisher.

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Causal Inference and Variable Control | Paul meehl Graduate School

May 9, 2025

paulmeehlschool.github.io

Bayes factors for two-group comparisons in Cox regression with an application for reverse-engineering raw data from summary statistics

The use of Cox proportional hazards regression to analyze time-to-event data is ubiquitous in biomedical research. Typically, the frequentist framework is used to draw conclusions about whether haz...

doi.org

To interact or not to interact: The pros and cons of including interactions in linear regression models - Behavior Research Methods

Interaction effects are very common in the psychological literature. However, interaction effects are typically very small and often fail to replicate. In this study, we conducted a simulation compari...

doi.org

General Triage, Geolocation Data, and Registered Revisions: A Peek Under the Hood of Collabra: Psychology

This editorial comes one year after I took the reins of Collabra: Psychology from Simine Vazire. Simine led the journal from 2020 to 2023, and I have had the privilege of working with her during that ...

doi.org