56 posts · 51,879 views
I am a psychologist and cognitive neuroscientist by training. I am a blogger in my spare time. I aspire to be a data scientist.
Brain's Idea
56 posts
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- March 20, 2017
- 05:31 PM
- 401 views
Why ear plugs are great for clubbing and concerts
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
I enjoy clubbing and pop/rock concerts exclusively with my ear plugs in. Does that mean I miss out? No, I enjoy the music exactly as it is meant to be. Picture by Melianis at fi.wikipedia (CC BY 2.5) Since 2004 the urban dictionary includes the term ‘deaf rave’ to describe a ‘rave, or party, organised […]... Read more »
Huang J, Gamble D, Sarnlertsophon K, Wang X, & Hsiao S. (2013) Integration of auditory and tactile inputs in musical meter perception. Advances in experimental medicine and biology, 453-61. PMID: 23716252
Russo FA, Ammirante P, & Fels DI. (2012) Vibrotactile discrimination of musical timbre. Journal of experimental psychology. Human perception and performance, 38(4), 822-6. PMID: 22708743
Zhao F, Manchaiah VK, French D, & Price SM. (2010) Music exposure and hearing disorders: an overview. International journal of audiology, 49(1), 54-64. PMID: 20001447
- March 6, 2017
- 07:32 AM
- 357 views
The growing divide between higher and low impact scientific journals
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Ten years ago the Public Library of Science started one big lower impact and a series of smaller higher impact journals. Over the years these publication outlets diverged. The growing divide between standard and top journals might mirror wider trends in scholarly publishing. There are roughly two kinds of journals in the Public Library of […]... Read more »
Vale, R.D. (2015) Accelerating scientific publication in biology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 13439-13446. DOI: 10.1101/022368
- March 1, 2017
- 04:12 AM
- 296 views
The slowing down of the biggest scientific journal
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
PLoS ONE started 11 years ago to disruptively change scholarly publishing. By now it is the biggest scientific journal out there. Why has it become so slow? Many things changed at PLoS ONE over the years, reflecting general trends in how researchers publish their work. For one thing, PLoS ONE grew enourmously. After publishing only […]... Read more »
Wakeling S, Willett P, Creaser C, Fry J, Pinfield S, & Spezi V. (2016) Open-Access Mega-Journals: A Bibliometric Profile. PloS one, 11(11). PMID: 27861511
- February 22, 2017
- 05:01 AM
- 358 views
Do twitter or facebook activity influence scientific impact?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Are scientists smart when they promote their work on social media? Isn’t this a waste of time, time which could better be spent in the lab running experiments? No. An analysis of all available articles published by PLoS journals suggests otherwise. My own twitter activity might best be thought of as learning about science (in […]... Read more »
Peoples BK, Midway SR, Sackett D, Lynch A, & Cooney PB. (2016) Twitter Predicts Citation Rates of Ecological Research. PloS one, 11(11). PMID: 27835703
Renear AH, & Palmer CL. (2009) Strategic reading, ontologies, and the future of scientific publishing. Science (New York, N.Y.), 325(5942), 828-32. PMID: 19679805
- February 17, 2017
- 08:01 AM
- 465 views
Why does music training increase intelligence?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
We know that music training causes intelligence to increase, but why? In this post I 1) propose a new theory, and 2) falsify it immediately. Given that this particular combination of activities is unpublishable in any academic journal, I invite you to read the whole story here (in under 500 words). 1) Proposing the ISAML Incredible but […]... Read more »
Carey, D., Rosen, S., Krishnan, S., Pearce, M., Shepherd, A., Aydelott, J., & Dick, F. (2015) Generality and specificity in the effects of musical expertise on perception and cognition. Cognition, 81-105. DOI: 10.1016/j.cognition.2014.12.005
Jongman, S., Meyer, A., & Roelofs, A. (2015) The Role of Sustained Attention in the Production of Conjoined Noun Phrases: An Individual Differences Study. PLOS ONE, 10(9). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0137557
Jones, M., & Boltz, M. (1989) Dynamic attending and responses to time. Psychological Review, 96(3), 459-491. DOI: 10.1037//0033-295X.96.3.459
Kaviani, H., Mirbaha, H., Pournaseh, M., & Sagan, O. (2013) Can music lessons increase the performance of preschool children in IQ tests?. Cognitive Processing, 15(1), 77-84. DOI: 10.1007/s10339-013-0574-0
Kunert R, & Jongman SR. (2017) Entrainment to an auditory signal: Is attention involved?. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 146(1), 77-88. PMID: 28054814
Olivers, C., & Nieuwenhuis, S. (2005) The Beneficial Effect of Concurrent Task-Irrelevant Mental Activity on Temporal Attention. Psychological Science, 16(4), 265-269. DOI: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2005.01526.x
Glenn Schellenberg, E. (2004) Music Lessons Enhance IQ. Psychological Science, 15(8), 511-514. DOI: 10.1111/j.0956-7976.2004.00711.x
- January 9, 2017
- 06:48 AM
- 443 views
The curious effect of a musical rhythm on us
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Do you know the feeling of a musical piece moving you? What is this feeling? One common answer by psychological researchers is that what you feel is your attention moving in sync with the music. In a new paper I show that this explanation is mistaken. Watch the start of the following video and observe […]... Read more »
Kunert R, & Jongman SR. (2017) Entrainment to an auditory signal: Is attention involved?. Journal of experimental psychology. General, 146(1), 77-88. PMID: 28054814
- January 5, 2017
- 06:21 AM
- 467 views
How to write a nature-style review
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Nature Reviews Neuroscience is one of the foremost journals in neuroscience. What do its articles look like? How have they developed? This blog post provides answers which might guide you in writing your own reviews. Read more than you used to Reviews in Nature Reviews Neuroscience cover more and more ground. Ten years ago, 93 […]... Read more »
Vale, R. (2015) Accelerating scientific publication in biology. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(44), 13439-13446. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1511912112
- August 12, 2016
- 07:52 AM
- 735 views
Discovering a glaring error in a research paper – a personal account
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
New York Magazine has published a great article about how grad student Steven Ludeke tried to correct mistakes in the research of Pete Hatemi and Brad Verhulst. Overall, Ludeke summarises his experience as ‘not recommendable’. Back in my undergraduate years I spotted an error in an article by David DeMatteo and did little to correct it. […]... Read more »
DeMatteo, D., Heilbrun, K., & Marczyk, G. (2006) An empirical investigation of psychopathy in a noninstitutionalized and noncriminal sample. Behavioral Sciences , 24(2), 133-146. DOI: 10.1002/bsl.667
Gao, Y., & Raine, A. (2010) Successful and unsuccessful psychopaths: A neurobiological model. Behavioral Sciences . DOI: 10.1002/bsl.924
Kunert, R. (2016) Internal conceptual replications do not increase independent replication success. Psychonomic Bulletin . DOI: 10.3758/s13423-016-1030-9
Rucević S. (2010) Psychopathic personality traits and delinquent and risky sexual behaviors in Croatian sample of non-referred boys and girls. Law and human behavior, 34(5), 379-91. PMID: 19728057
Ullrich, S., Farrington, D., & Coid, J. (2008) Psychopathic personality traits and life-success. Personality and Individual Differences, 44(5), 1162-1171. DOI: 10.1016/j.paid.2007.11.008
- August 3, 2016
- 07:02 PM
- 664 views
How to excel at academic conferences in 5 steps
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Academic conferences have been the biggest joy of my PhD and so I want to share with others how to excel at this academic tradition. The author (second from right, with can) at his first music cognition conference (SMPC 2013 in Toronto) which – despite appearances – he attended by himself. 1) Socialising A conference […]... Read more »
Kunert R, & Slevc LR. (2015) A Commentary on: "Neural overlap in processing music and speech". Frontiers in human neuroscience, 330. PMID: 26089792
Kunert R, Willems RM, & Hagoort P. (2016) Language influences music harmony perception: effects of shared syntactic integration resources beyond attention. Royal Society open science, 3(2), 150685. PMID: 26998339
- July 15, 2016
- 06:56 AM
- 781 views
How to test for music skills
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
In a new article I evaluate a recently developed test for music listening skills. To my great surprise the test behaves very well. This could open the path to better understand the psychology underlying music listening. Why am I surprised? I got my first taste of how difficult it is to replicate published scientific results […]... Read more »
Kunert R, & Scheepers C. (2014) Speed and accuracy of dyslexic versus typical word recognition: an eye-movement investigation. Frontiers in psychology, 1129. PMID: 25346708
Kunert R, Willems RM, & Hagoort P. (2016) Language influences music harmony perception: effects of shared syntactic integration resources beyond attention. Royal Society open science, 3(2), 150685. PMID: 26998339
Kunert R, Willems RM, & Hagoort P. (2016) An Independent Psychometric Evaluation of the PROMS Measure of Music Perception Skills. PloS one, 11(7). PMID: 27398805
Law LN, & Zentner M. (2012) Assessing musical abilities objectively: construction and validation of the profile of music perception skills. PloS one, 7(12). PMID: 23285071
Nichols SA, McLeod JS, Holder RL, & McLeod HS. (2009) Screening for dyslexia, dyspraxia and Meares-Irlen syndrome in higher education. Dyslexia, 15(1), 42-60. PMID: 19089876
Singleton, C., Horne, J., & Simmons, F. (2009) Computerised screening for dyslexia in adults. Journal of Research in Reading, 32(1), 137-152. DOI: 10.1111/j.1467-9817.2008.01386.x
- May 24, 2016
- 12:59 PM
- 755 views
A critical comment on “Contextual sensitivity in scientific reproducibility”
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Psychological science is surprisingly difficult to replicate (Open Science Collaboration, 2015). Researchers are desperate to find out why. A new study in the prestigious journal PNAS (Van Bavel et al., 2016) claims unknown contextual factors of psychological phenomena (“hidden moderators”) are to blame. The more an effect is sensitive to unknown contextual factors, the less […]... Read more »
Dreber, A., Pfeiffer, T., Almenberg, J., Isaksson, S., Wilson, B., Chen, Y., Nosek, B., & Johannesson, M. (2015) Using prediction markets to estimate the reproducibility of scientific research. Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, 112(50), 15343-15347. DOI: 10.1073/pnas.1516179112
Kunert, R. (2016) Internal conceptual replications do not increase independent replication success. Psychonomic Bulletin . DOI: 10.3758/s13423-016-1030-9
Open Science Collaboration. (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251). DOI: 10.1126/science.aac4716
Van Bavel, J.J., Mende-Siedlecki, P., Brady, W.J., & Reinero, D.A. (2016) Contextual sensitivity in scientific reproducibility. PNAS. info:/
- April 25, 2016
- 07:39 AM
- 959 views
Yet more evidence for questionable research practices in original studies of Reproducibility Project: Psychology
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
The replicability of psychological research is surprisingly low. Why? In this blog post I present new evidence showing that questionable research practices are at the heart of failures to replicate psychological effects. Quick recap. A recent publication in Science claims that only around 40% of psychological findings are replicable, based on 100 replication attempts in […]... Read more »
Asendorpf, J., Conner, M., De Fruyt, F., De Houwer, J., Denissen, J., Fiedler, K., Fiedler, S., Funder, D., Kliegl, R., Nosek, B.... (2013) Recommendations for Increasing Replicability in Psychology. European Journal of Personality, 27(2), 108-119. DOI: 10.1002/per.1919
Gerber, A., & Malhotra, N. (2008) Publication Bias in Empirical Sociological Research: Do Arbitrary Significance Levels Distort Published Results?. Sociological Methods , 37(1), 3-30. DOI: 10.1177/0049124108318973
Gerber, A., Malhotra, N., Dowling, C., & Doherty, D. (2010) Publication Bias in Two Political Behavior Literatures. American Politics Research, 38(4), 591-613. DOI: 10.1177/1532673X09350979
Gilbert, D., King, G., Pettigrew, S., & Wilson, T. (2016) Comment on "Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science". Science, 351(6277), 1037-1037. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad7243
Head ML, Holman L, Lanfear R, Kahn AT, & Jennions MD. (2015) The extent and consequences of p-hacking in science. PLoS biology, 13(3). PMID: 25768323
Ioannidis JP, Munafò MR, Fusar-Poli P, Nosek BA, & David SP. (2014) Publication and other reporting biases in cognitive sciences: detection, prevalence, and prevention. Trends in cognitive sciences, 18(5), 235-41. PMID: 24656991
Kühberger A, Fritz A, & Scherndl T. (2014) Publication bias in psychology: a diagnosis based on the correlation between effect size and sample size. PloS one, 9(9). PMID: 25192357
Kunert R. (2016) Internal conceptual replications do not increase independent replication success. Psychonomic bulletin . PMID: 27068542
Open Science Collaboration. (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251). DOI: 10.1126/science.aac4716
- April 14, 2016
- 08:52 AM
- 856 views
10 things I learned while working for the Dutch science funding council (NWO)
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
The way science is currently funded is very controversial. During the last 6 months I was on a break from my PhD and worked for the organisation funding science in the Netherlands (NWO). These are 10 insights I gained. 1) Belangenverstrengeling This is the first word I learned when arriving in The Hague. There is […]... Read more »
Etz, A., & Vandekerckhove, J. (2016) A Bayesian Perspective on the Reproducibility Project: Psychology. PLOS ONE, 11(2). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0149794
Kunert R. (2016) Internal conceptual replications do not increase independent replication success. Psychonomic bulletin . PMID: 27068542
Open Science Collaboration. (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251). DOI: 10.1126/science.aac4716
- March 19, 2016
- 08:56 AM
- 842 views
Is Replicability in Economics better than in Psychology?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Colin Camerer and colleagues recently published a Science article on the replicability of behavioural economics. ‘It appears that there is some difference in replication success’ between psychology and economics, they write, given their reproducibility rate of 61% and psychology’s of 36%. I took a closer look at the data to find out whether there really […]... Read more »
Camerer, C., Dreber, A., Forsell, E., Ho, T., Huber, J., Johannesson, M., Kirchler, M., Almenberg, J., Altmejd, A., Chan, T.... (2016) Evaluating replicability of laboratory experiments in economics. Science. DOI: 10.1126/science.aaf0918
Open Science Collaboration. (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251). DOI: 10.1126/science.aac4716
- March 15, 2016
- 01:47 PM
- 637 views
Psychological researchers need to change their practices: here’s why
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Why is a surprising amount of psychological research unreplicable? Psychology calls itself a science but often falls short on the replication test of scientific merit. I took a closer look at the data to find out why. The journal Psychonomic Bulletin and Review will publish the findings very soon, but the accepted pre-print is already […]... Read more »
Gilbert, D., King, G., Pettigrew, S., & Wilson, T. (2016) Comment on "Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science". Science, 351(6277), 1037-1037. DOI: 10.1126/science.aad7243
Open Science Collaboration. (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science, 349(6251). DOI: 10.1126/science.aac4716
- February 9, 2016
- 01:51 PM
- 847 views
How language changes the way you hear music
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
In a new paper I, together with Roel Willems and Peter Hagoort, show that music and language are tightly coupled in the brain. Get the gist in a 180 second youtube clip and then try out what my participants did. The task my participants had to do might sound very abstract to you, so let […]... Read more »
Kunert R, & Slevc LR. (2015) A Commentary on: "Neural overlap in processing music and speech". Frontiers in human neuroscience, 330. PMID: 26089792
Kunert, R., Willems, R., & Hagoort, P. (2016) Language influences music harmony perception: effects of shared syntactic integration resources beyond attention. Royal Society Open Science, 3(2), 150685. DOI: 10.1098/rsos.150685
- November 22, 2015
- 10:14 AM
- 998 views
Are pre-registrations the solution to the replication crisis in Psychology? Not really.
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Most psychology findings are not replicable. What can be done? In his Psychological Science editorial, Stephen Lindsay advertises pre-registration as the solution, writing that “Personally, I aim never again to submit for publication a report of a study that was not preregistered”. I took a look at whether pre-registrations are effective and feasible [TL;DR: no […]... Read more »
Chan AW, Krleza-Jerić K, Schmid I, & Altman DG. (2004) Outcome reporting bias in randomized trials funded by the Canadian Institutes of Health Research. CMAJ : Canadian Medical Association journal , 171(7), 735-40. PMID: 15451835
Chan, A., Hróbjartsson, A., Haahr, M., Gøtzsche, P., & Altman, D. (2004) Empirical Evidence for Selective Reporting of Outcomes in Randomized Trials. JAMA, 291(20), 2457. DOI: 10.1001/jama.291.20.2457
Franco, A., Malhotra, N., & Simonovits, G. (2015) Underreporting in Psychology Experiments: Evidence From a Study Registry. Social Psychological and Personality Science. DOI: 10.1177/1948550615598377
Lindsay, D. (2015) Replication in Psychological Science. Psychological Science. DOI: 10.1177/0956797615616374
Mathieu, S., Boutron, I., Moher, D., Altman, D.G., & Ravaud, P. (2009) Comparison of Registered and Published Primary Outcomes in Randomized Controlled Trials. JAMA, 302(9), 977. DOI: 10.1001/jama.2009.1242
Mathieu, S., Chan, A., & Ravaud, P. (2013) Use of Trial Register Information during the Peer Review Process. PLoS ONE, 8(4). DOI: 10.1371/journal.pone.0059910
Nosek, B., & Bar-Anan, Y. (2012) Scientific Utopia: I. Opening Scientific Communication. Psychological Inquiry, 23(3), 217-243. DOI: 10.1080/1047840X.2012.692215
Open Science Collaboration. (2015) PSYCHOLOGY. Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science (New York, N.Y.), 349(6251). PMID: 26315443
- November 6, 2015
- 07:47 AM
- 1,181 views
Broca’s area processes both music and language at the same time
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
When you read a book and listen to music, the brain doesn’t keep these two tasks nicely separated. In a new article just out, I show that there is a brain area which is busy with both tasks at the same time (Kunert et al., 2015). This brain area might tell us a lot about […]... Read more »
Hagoort P. (2013) MUC (Memory, Unification, Control) and beyond. Frontiers in psychology, 416. PMID: 23874313
Kunert R, & Slevc LR. (2015) A Commentary on: "Neural overlap in processing music and speech". Frontiers in human neuroscience, 330. PMID: 26089792
Kunert R, Willems RM, Casasanto D, Patel AD, & Hagoort P. (2015) Music and Language Syntax Interact in Broca's Area: An fMRI Study. PloS one, 10(11). PMID: 26536026
- September 5, 2015
- 07:21 AM
- 1,178 views
Are internal replications the solution to the replication crisis in Psychology? No.
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Most Psychology findings are not replicable. What can be done? Stanford psychologist Michael Frank has an idea : Cumulative study sets with internal replication. ‘If I had to advocate for a single change to practice, this would be it.’ I took a look whether this makes any difference. A recent paper in the journal Science […]... Read more »
Bem DJ. (2011) Feeling the future: experimental evidence for anomalous retroactive influences on cognition and affect. Journal of personality and social psychology, 100(3), 407-25. PMID: 21280961
Galak, J., LeBoeuf, R., Nelson, L., & Simmons, J. (2012) Correcting the past: Failures to replicate psi. Journal of Personality and Social Psychology, 103(6), 933-948. DOI: 10.1037/a0029709
Open Science Collaboration. (2015) PSYCHOLOGY. Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science (New York, N.Y.), 349(6251). PMID: 26315443
Ritchie SJ, Wiseman R, & French CC. (2012) Failing the future: three unsuccessful attempts to replicate Bem's 'retroactive facilitation of recall' effect. PloS one, 7(3). PMID: 22432019
Schimmack U. (2012) The ironic effect of significant results on the credibility of multiple-study articles. Psychological methods, 17(4), 551-66. PMID: 22924598
- September 3, 2015
- 07:23 AM
- 1,040 views
Why are Psychological findings mostly unreplicable?
by Richard Kunert in Brain's Idea
Take 97 psychological effects from top journals which are claimed to be robust. How many will replicate? Brian Nosek and his huge team tried it out and the results were sobering, to say the least. How did we get here? The data give some clues. Sometimes the title of a paper just sounds incredible. Estimating […]... Read more »
John LK, Loewenstein G, & Prelec D. (2012) Measuring the prevalence of questionable research practices with incentives for truth telling. Psychological science, 23(5), 524-32. PMID: 22508865
Lakens, D. (2014) Performing high-powered studies efficiently with sequential analyses. European Journal of Social Psychology, 44(7), 701-710. DOI: 10.1002/ejsp.2023
Open Science Collaboration. (2015) Estimating the reproducibility of psychological science. Science (New York, N.Y.), 349(6251). PMID: 26315443
Simmons, J., Nelson, L., & Simonsohn, U. (2011) False-Positive Psychology: Undisclosed Flexibility in Data Collection and Analysis Allows Presenting Anything as Significant. Psychological Science, 22(11), 1359-1366. DOI: 10.1177/0956797611417632
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