Evaluations are inherently comparative, but are compared to what?

Understanding how objective quantities are translated into subjective evaluations has long been of interest to social scientists, medical professionals, and policymakers with an interest in how people process and act on quantitative information. The theory of decision by sampling proposes a comparative procedure: Values seem larger or smaller based on how they rank in a comparison set, the decision sample. But what values are included in this decision sample? We identify and test four mechanistic accounts, each suggesting that how previously encountered attribute values are processed determines whether they linger in the sample to guide the subjective interpretation, and thus the influence, of newly encountered values. Testing our ideas through studies of loss aversion, delay discounting, and vaccine hesitancy, we find strongest support for one account: Quantities need to be subjectively evaluated-rather than merely encountered-for them to enter the decision sample, alter the subjective interpretation of other values, and then guide decision making. Discussion focuses on how the present findings inform understanding of the nature of the decision sample and identify new research directions for the longstanding question of how comparison standards influence decision making. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2024 APA, all rights reserved).

Once and Again: Repeated Viewing Affects Judgments of Spontaneity and Preparation.

Reality is fleeting, and any moment can only be experienced once. Rewatching a video, however, allows people to repeatedly observe the exact same moment. We propose that people may fail to fully distinguish between merely observing behavior again (through replay) from that behavior being performed again in the exact same way. Using an assortment of stimuli that included auditions, commercials, and potential trial evidence, we demonstrated through nine experiments (N = 10,412 adults in the United States) that rewatching makes a recorded behavior appear more rehearsed and less spontaneous, as if the actors were simply precisely repeating their actions. These findings contribute to an emerging literature showing that incidental video features, like perspective or slow motion, can meaningfully change evaluations. Replay may inadvertently shape judgments in both mundane and consequential contexts. To understand how a video will influence its viewer, one will need to consider not only its content, but also how often it is viewed.

Effects of a Powered Ankle-Foot Prosthesis and Physical Therapy on Function for Individuals With Transfemoral Limb Loss: Rationale, Design, and Protocol for a Multisite Clinical Trial.

BACKGROUND: Powered ankle-foot prosthetic devices can generate net positive mechanical work during gait, which mimics the physiological ankle. However, gait deviations can persist in individuals with transfemoral limb loss because of habit or lack of rehabilitation. Prosthetic research efforts favor the design or evaluation of prosthetic componentry and rarely incorporate any type of rehabilitation, despite evidence suggesting that it is critical for minimizing gait imbalances. Given the accelerated rate of innovation in prosthetics, there is a fundamental knowledge gap concerning how individuals with transfemoral limb loss should learn to correctly use powered ankle-foot devices for maximum functional benefit. Because of the recent advances in prosthetic technology, there is also a critical unmet need to develop guidelines for the prescription of advanced prosthetic devices that incorporate both physical and psychological components to identify appropriate candidates for advanced technology. OBJECTIVE: The primary goal of this investigation is to examine the roles of advanced prosthetic technology and a device-specific rehabilitative intervention on gait biomechanics, functional efficacy, and pain in individuals with transfemoral limb loss. The secondary goal is to develop preliminary rehabilitation guidelines for advanced lower limb prosthetic devices to minimize gait imbalances and maximize function and to establish preliminary guidelines for powered ankle-foot prosthetic prescription. METHODS: This prospective, multisite study will enroll 30 individuals with unilateral transfemoral limb loss. At baseline, participants will undergo a full gait analysis and assessment of function, neurocognition, cognitive load, subjective preferences, and pain using their current passive prosthesis. The participants will then be fitted with a powered ankle-foot device and randomized into 2 equal groups: a powered device with a device-specific rehabilitation intervention (group A) or a powered device with the current standard of practice (group B). Group A will undergo 4 weeks of device-specific rehabilitation. Group B will receive the current standard of practice, which includes basic device education but no further device-specific rehabilitation. Data collection procedures will then be repeated after 4 weeks and 8 weeks of powered ankle use. RESULTS: This study was funded in September 2017. Enrollment began in September 2018. Data collection will conclude by March 2024. The initial dissemination of results is expected in August 2024. CONCLUSIONS: The projected trends indicate that the number of individuals with limb loss will dramatically increase in the United States. The absence of effective, evidence-based interventions may make individuals with transfemoral limb loss more susceptible to increased secondary physical conditions and degenerative changes. With this expected growth, considerable resources will be required for prosthetic and rehabilitation services. Identifying potential mechanisms for correcting gait asymmetries, either through advanced prosthetic technology or rehabilitative interventions, can provide a benchmark for understanding the optimal treatment strategies for individuals with transfemoral limb loss. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03625921; https://clinicaltrials.gov/study/NCT03625921. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/53412.

High replicability of newly discovered social-behavioural findings is achievable.

Failures to replicate evidence of new discoveries have forced scientists to ask whether this unreliability is due to suboptimal implementation of methods or whether presumptively optimal methods are not, in fact, optimal. This paper reports an investigation by four coordinated laboratories of the prospective replicability of 16 novel experimental findings using rigour-enhancing practices: confirmatory tests, large sample sizes, preregistration and methodological transparency. In contrast to past systematic replication efforts that reported replication rates averaging 50%, replication attempts here produced the expected effects with significance testing (P < 0.05) in 86% of attempts, slightly exceeding the maximum expected replicability based on observed effect sizes and sample sizes. When one lab attempted to replicate an effect discovered by another lab, the effect size in the replications was 97% that in the original study. This high replication rate justifies confidence in rigour-enhancing methods to increase the replicability of new discoveries.

Women with limb loss: rationale, design and protocol for a national, exploratory needs assessment to evaluate the unique physical and psychosocial needs of women with limb loss.

INTRODUCTION: There is a growing population of women with limb loss, yet limited research is available to provide evidentiary support for clinical decision-making in this demographic. As such, there is a critical gap in knowledge of evidence-based healthcare practices aimed to maximise the physical and psychosocial needs of women with limb loss. The objective of this study is to develop a comprehensive, survey-based needs assessment to determine the unique impact of limb loss on women, including physical and psychosocial needs. METHODS AND ANALYSIS: A bank of existing limb loss-specific and non-limb loss-specific surveys were arranged around domains of general health, quality of life, prosthetic use and needs, psychosocial health and behaviours and body image. These surveys were supplemented with written items to ensure coverage of relevant domains. Written items were iteratively refined with a multidisciplinary expert panel. The interpretability of items and relevance to limb loss were then internally tested on a small group of rehabilitation, engineering and research professionals. A diverse sample of 12 individuals with various levels of limb loss piloted the instrument and participated in cognitive interviews. Items from existing surveys were evaluated for relevance and inclusion in the survey, but not solicited for content feedback. Pilot testing resulted in the removal of 13 items from an existing survey due to redundancy. Additionally, 13 written items were deleted, 42 written items were revised and 17 written items were added. The survey-based needs assessment has been crafted to comprehensively assess the wide spectrum of issues facing women with limb loss. The final version of the survey-based needs assessment included 15 subsections. ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION: This study was approved by the Veterans Affairs Central Institutional Review Board. The results will be disseminated through national and international conferences, as well as through manuscripts in leading peer-reviewed journals. TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER: No healthcare intervention on human participants was conducted.

Criteria for Advanced Prosthetic Foot Prescription: Rationale, Design, and Protocol for a Multisite, Randomized Controlled Trial.

BACKGROUND: The prescription of prosthetic ankle-foot devices is often based on the professional judgment of the limb loss care team or limited evidentiary research. Current prosthetic research efforts have focused on the design and development of prosthetic devices rather than on understanding which devices are the most appropriate to prescribe. This investigation will evaluate biomechanical, functional, and subjective outcome measures to help determine the optimal prescription parameters of prosthetic ankle-foot devices. OBJECTIVE: This study aims to develop evidence-based guidelines for limb loss care teams for the appropriate prescription of commercially available prosthetic ankle-foot devices to improve function and satisfaction. METHODS: This investigation will be a multisite, randomized, crossover clinical trial targeting the enrollment of 100 participants. Participants will use 3 different types of prosthetic devices (energy storing and returning, articulating, and powered) in random order. Participants will be fitted and trained with each device and then separately use each device for a 1-week acclimation period. Following each 1-week acclimation period, participants will be evaluated using several functional measures and subjective surveys. A random subset of participants (30/100, 30%) will also undergo full-body gait analysis, following each 1-week acclimation period, to collect biomechanical data during level ground and incline and decline walking. After all individual device evaluations, participants will be given all 3 prostheses concurrently for 4 weeks of home and community use to capture user preference. Activity monitoring and a guided interview will be used to determine overall user preference. RESULTS: The study was funded in August 2017, and data collection began in 2018. Data collection is expected to be completed before July 2023. Initial dissemination of results is expected to occur in the winter of 2023. CONCLUSIONS: By identifying biomechanical, functional, and subjective outcomes that are sensitive to differences in prosthetic ankle-foot devices, a benchmark of evidence can be developed to guide effective prosthetic prescription. TRIAL REGISTRATION: ClinicalTrials.gov NCT03505983; https://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT03505983. INTERNATIONAL REGISTERED REPORT IDENTIFIER (IRRID): DERR1-10.2196/45612.

Evaluation of Weight Shift and X-Factor During Golf Swing of Veterans With Lower Limb Loss.

OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study was to assess the weight shift and X-Factor values of golfers with lower limb loss. DESIGN: Veterans with above or below knee limb loss participated in a 3-day adaptive golf event hosted by the Department of Veterans Affairs. Professional golf instructors educated participants on proper golf swing mechanics, after which kinematic analysis of trunk rotation and kinetic analysis of weight transfer between the legs during the golf swing were evaluated using three-dimensional motion capture and force platforms. RESULTS: Golfers with a trail leg amputation, regardless of level of limb loss, demonstrated superior weight shift, whereas golfers with lead limb amputation showed greater X-Factor values (all P < 0.05). Golfers with below knee limb loss demonstrated better weight shift strategies compared to those with above knee limb loss, regardless of which leg was amputated (i.e., lead or trail limb, all P < 0.05). CONCLUSIONS: Sports rehabilitation programs should focus on increased weight bearing on the prosthetic limb to achieve appropriate weight shift and increased flexibility to increase X-Factor values. Participation in such programs can offer both physical and psychosocial benefits and may be a valid tool to increase the overall quality of life of veterans with lower limb loss.

Acute influence of an adaptive sporting event on quality of life in veterans with disabilities.

Veterans with disabilities can experience poor quality of life following military service due to the associated negative physical and psychological ramifications. However, participation in physical activities has shown to induce both physical and mental benefits and improve the quality of life of this population. Adaptive sports, an innovative approach to address the unique physical and psychosocial needs of veterans with disabilities, are becoming more widely used as a rehabilitation tool to improve the quality of life for these veterans. This study aimed to determine the acute influence of participation in a single-day, veteran-based, adaptive kayaking and sailing event on the perceived overall health, quality of life, and quality of social life of veterans with varying disabilities. It was hypothesized that all three categories and the sum score of quality of life would reflect a positive acute response after participation in the community-based physical activity event. Veterans responded to three quality of life-related questions using a 5-point Likert scale before and directly after participating in the event. Findings indicated that an adaptive sporting event can have an acute positive influence on the quality of life of veteran participants, with improvements observed in all three categories of perceived quality of life. Therefore, it is advantageous for the whole-health rehabilitation of veterans with disabilities for the Department of Veterans Affairs to continue to provide opportunities for veterans to participate in non-traditional, community-based activities.

Prosocial spending encourages happiness: A replication of the only experiment reported in Dunn, Aknin, and Norton (2008).

Spending money on one's self, whether to solve a problem, fulfill a need, or increase enjoyment, often heightens one's sense of happiness. It is therefore both surprising and important that people can be even happier after spending money on someone else. We conducted a close replication of a key experiment from Dunn, Aknin, and Norton (2008) to verify and expand upon their findings. Participants were given money and randomly assigned to either spend it on themselves or on someone else. Although the original study (N = 46) found that the latter group was happier, when we used the same analysis in our replication (N = 133), we did not observe a significant difference. However, we report an additional analysis, focused on a more direct measure of happiness, that does show a significant effect in the direction of the original. Follow-up analyses shed new insights into people's predictions about their own and others' happiness and their actual happiness when spending money for themselves or others.

Empirical audit and review and an assessment of evidentiary value in research on the psychological consequences of scarcity.

Empirical audit and review is an approach to assessing the evidentiary value of a research area. It involves identifying a topic and selecting a cross-section of studies for replication. We apply the method to research on the psychological consequences of scarcity. Starting with the papers citing a seminal publication in the field, we conducted replications of 20 studies that evaluate the role of scarcity priming in pain sensitivity, resource allocation, materialism, and many other domains. There was considerable variability in the replicability, with some strong successes and other undeniable failures. Empirical audit and review does not attempt to assign an overall replication rate for a heterogeneous field, but rather facilitates researchers seeking to incorporate strength of evidence as they refine theories and plan new investigations in the research area. This method allows for an integration of qualitative and quantitative approaches to review and enables the growth of a cumulative science.

Demographic and Functional Characteristics of National Veterans Wheelchair Games Participants: A Cross-sectional Study.

INTRODUCTION: Although many studies report the impact of adaptive sports and recreation on quality of life for people with disabilities across several age groups, few have focused on the Veteran population. The purpose of this study was to establish a baseline of common characteristics of the Veteran population that participated in the National Veterans Wheelchair Games (NVWG) in 2017 and 2018, including their perception on how their participation is associated with function and social factors. MATERIALS AND METHODS: A cross-sectional study was implemented as part of a quality assurance collaboration between the University of Pittsburgh and the Veterans Administration National Veterans Sports Programs and Special Events. Demographic and quality-of-life data were collected through the Functional Mobility Assessment (FMA) and associated Uniform Dataset as well as the Sports Participation Outcome Research Tool and Comprehensive Uniform Survey (SPORTACUS). This report provides and discusses the descriptive analyses that were performed on the data and establishes a framework to assess the impact of sports and exercise for Veterans with disabilities. RESULTS: A sample of 426 Veterans, 87% who were male and an average population age of 56 years old, reported high FMA scores on each of 10 items (daily routine, comfort, health, operate, reach, transfer, personal care, indoor mobility, outdoor mobility, and transportation) along with SPORTACUS scores scoring above 5, based on a 1-6 scoring scale (1 being "completely disagree" and 6 being "completely agree"), on each domain indicating sports participation is associated with their ability to function and participate in the community. CONCLUSION: Based on these results, it can be concluded for this military Veteran population that participation in a large, organized adaptive sports programs such as the NVWG has a positive association with daily function, quality of life, community participation, and use of higher quality assistive technology.

Publisher Correction: Specification curve analysis.

An amendment to this paper has been published and can be accessed via a link at the top of the paper.

Specification curve analysis.

Empirical results hinge on analytical decisions that are defensible, arbitrary and motivated. These decisions probably introduce bias (towards the narrative put forward by the authors), and they certainly involve variability not reflected by standard errors. To address this source of noise and bias, we introduce specification curve analysis, which consists of three steps: (1) identifying the set of theoretically justified, statistically valid and non-redundant specifications; (2) displaying the results graphically, allowing readers to identify consequential specifications decisions; and (3) conducting joint inference across all specifications. We illustrate the use of this technique by applying it to three findings from two different papers, one investigating discrimination based on distinctively Black names, the other investigating the effect of assigning female versus male names to hurricanes. Specification curve analysis reveals that one finding is robust, one is weak and one is not robust at all.

Overestimating the valuations and preferences of others.

People often make judgments about their own and others' valuations and preferences. Across 12 studies (N = 17,594), we find a robust bias in these judgments such that people overestimate the valuations and preferences of others. This overestimation arises because, when making predictions about others, people rely on their intuitive core representation of the experience (e.g., is the experience generally positive?) in lieu of a more complex representation that might also include countervailing aspects (e.g., is any of the experience negative?). We first demonstrate that the overestimation bias is pervasive for a wide range of positive (Studies 1-5) and negative experiences (Study 6). Furthermore, the bias is not merely an artifact of how preferences are measured (Study 7). Consistent with judgments based on core representations, the bias significantly reduces when the core representation is uniformly positive (Studies 8A-8B). Such judgments lead to a paradox in how people see others trade off between valuation and utility (Studies 9A-9B). Specifically, relative to themselves, people believe that an identically paying other will get more enjoyment from the same experience, but paradoxically, that an identically enjoying other will pay more for the same experience. Finally, consistent with a core representation explanation, explicitly prompting people to consider the entire distribution of others' preferences significantly reduced or eliminated the bias (Study 10). These findings suggest that social judgments of others' preferences are not only largely biased, but they also ignore how others make trade-offs between evaluative metrics. (PsycInfo Database Record (c) 2020 APA, all rights reserved).

99% impossible: A valid, or falsifiable, internal meta-analysis.

Several researchers have relied on, or advocated for, internal meta-analysis, which involves statistically aggregating multiple studies in a paper to assess their overall evidential value. Advocates of internal meta-analysis argue that it provides an efficient approach to increasing statistical power and solving the file-drawer problem. Here we show that the validity of internal meta-analysis rests on the assumption that no studies or analyses were selectively reported. That is, the technique is only valid if (a) all conducted studies were included (i.e., an empty file drawer), and (b) for each included study, exactly one analysis was attempted (i.e., there was no p-hacking). We show that even very small doses of selective reporting invalidate internal meta-analysis. For example, the kind of minimal p-hacking that increases the false-positive rate of 1 study to just 8% increases the false-positive rate of a 10-study internal meta-analysis to 83%. If selective reporting is approximately zero, but not exactly zero, then internal meta-analysis is invalid. To be valid, (a) an internal meta-analysis would need to contain exclusively studies that were properly preregistered, (b) those preregistrations would have to be followed in all essential aspects, and (c) the decision of whether to include a given study in an internal meta-analysis would have to be made before any of those studies are run. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2019 APA, all rights reserved).

P-curve won't do your laundry, but it will distinguish replicable from non-replicable findings in observational research: Comment on Bruns & Ioannidis (2016).

p-curve, the distribution of significant p-values, can be analyzed to assess if the findings have evidential value, whether p-hacking and file-drawering can be ruled out as the sole explanations for them. Bruns and Ioannidis (2016) have proposed p-curve cannot examine evidential value with observational data. Their discussion confuses false-positive findings with confounded ones, failing to distinguish correlation from causation. We demonstrate this important distinction by showing that a confounded but real, hence replicable association, gun ownership and number of sexual partners, leads to a right-skewed p-curve, while a false-positive one, respondent ID number and trust in the supreme court, leads to a flat p-curve. P-curve can distinguish between replicable and non-replicable findings. The observational nature of the data is not consequential.

False-Positive Citations.

We describe why we wrote "False-Positive Psychology," analyze how it has been cited, and explain why the integrity of experimental psychology hinges on the full disclosure of methods, the sharing of materials and data, and, especially, the preregistration of analyses.

Registered Replication Report: Dijksterhuis and van Knippenberg (1998).

Dijksterhuis and van Knippenberg (1998) reported that participants primed with a category associated with intelligence ("professor") subsequently performed 13% better on a trivia test than participants primed with a category associated with a lack of intelligence ("soccer hooligans"). In two unpublished replications of this study designed to verify the appropriate testing procedures, Dijksterhuis, van Knippenberg, and Holland observed a smaller difference between conditions (2%-3%) as well as a gender difference: Men showed the effect (9.3% and 7.6%), but women did not (0.3% and -0.3%). The procedure used in those replications served as the basis for this multilab Registered Replication Report. A total of 40 laboratories collected data for this project, and 23 of these laboratories met all inclusion criteria. Here we report the meta-analytic results for those 23 direct replications (total N = 4,493), which tested whether performance on a 30-item general-knowledge trivia task differed between these two priming conditions (results of supplementary analyses of the data from all 40 labs, N = 6,454, are also reported). We observed no overall difference in trivia performance between participants primed with the "professor" category and those primed with the "hooligan" category (0.14%) and no moderation by gender.