On the importance of replicating research findings

This thesis aims to raise awareness of the importance of replication in the cognitive neurosciences. We identified some problems in the literature in terms of reliability of research findings in chapter 1 and 2. In chapter 2 and 3 we provided reflections and discussions regarding our findings. Finally, in chapter 4 we provided an example of the kind of study which can be done to try to identify factors which might lead to decreases in reliability. This research has lead to some recommendations in terms of how future research might investigate and remedy the crisis of confidence currently experienced in cognitive neuroscience. Specifically, we propose that the pre-registered replication provides researchers with an excellent tool to simultaneously investigate reliability, while also preventing common Questionable Research Practices (QRPs) in a transparent way. This is done by making publicly available all methods and analysis plans of the replication prior to data acquisition. The subsequent execution of the replication project can be performed with very little opportunities for QRPs to interfere. Recently there have been some developments in terms of large-scale preregistered replication efforts, which leads me to optimistically suggest that the field is gradually increasing its reliability.