August 2021

Just what the title says:  https://www.psypost.org/2021/07/women-can-predict-a-mans-interest-in-short-term-uncommitted-relationships-just-by-looking-at-his-face-61444?fbclid=IwAR2GE3OFc0tsJcbzSQ0Nkg3wmwp5zWY6fWmODOzqNzfc6ZG_JjS5x04CdXg

As you might guess, this study has generated a lot of discussion: https://www.psypost.org/2021/07/large-study-finds-covid-19-is-linked-to-a-substantial-drop-in-intelligence-61577

(Links to the original articles are provided near the end of the psypost summaries)

Coffee consumption and dementia: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/955378?src=WNL_mdpls_210727_mscpedit_psych&uac=315526ER&spon=12&impID=3530708&faf=1#vp_1

IAT - https://replicationindex.com/2021/07/28/the-race-implicit-association-test-is-biased/?fbclid=IwAR0HkmOAGuYtVW8f9BxrwuNbLkkpBShApKVTuGHX2E0gCIu4WuG7fwuvDTw

COVID and base rate errors (Provincetown outbreak):  https://www.aol.com/news/eight-hundred-cases-7-hospitalizations-125324427.html?fbclid=IwAR3l7C_zmEiHPDaopsce2Q8hPu5aUJ0j2PfcgtVK6z0FU1KrIDyFHfF7SK0

Did Russia fake the Sputnik V COVID 19 RCT? : https://kylesheldrick.blogspot.com/2021/08/the-smoking-gun-that-russia-faked.html?m=1&fbclid=IwAR0MPCctYqNTHvxuN2m5-z8Qv7e_g5LCU4sdEe3atcLUDlMWctyXREc6VZo

Meta Analysis


A good introduction - including links to software: https://www.psychologicalscience.org/observer/introduction-to-meta-analysis-a-guide-for-the-novice

An even more basic introduction: https://www.verywellmind.com/definition-of-meta-analysis-425254

A critique of the approach: https://absolutelymaybe.plos.org/2016/07/05/psychologys-meta-analysis-problem/

A Bluffer's Guide to meta analysis - Andy Field (a bit old, and there are now several software options available to do the arithmetic): http://www.discoveringstatistics.com/docs/meta.pdf

July 2021

 Martin Seligman on Positive Psychology:  https://www.chronicle.com/article/effectiveness-of-positive-psychology?fbclid=IwAR1K1Z37F34dV8gLOl-YRHtzVclUE3ZBjaSfNiaHFnkf9AwSueY0gjnkLvo

What happens to retracted papers: https://www.economist.com/graphic-detail/2021/06/26/zombie-research-haunts-academic-literature-long-after-its-supposed-demise?fbclid=IwAR1eG8_v-lPtxbjO0XIGtSLDMalVUVc-mpCCfhcivsRL0BD-yDzb7pUuO6Q

Easystats R package: https://easystats.github.io/easystats/?fbclid=IwAR0AzX48EaYse_jqDX-E-I9vsVSXVFx63cuoy3ytPW5nx1wfK5yKICvDtH8

On single subject designs:  https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/abs/10.1177/00986283211029929?fbclid=IwAR3qagKOijnOL1QExZ4uuKMtQjh5-AiP8Nj1zZO_FGiB9pSRsZajjtSfdvw&

PDF of above: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/00986283211029929?casa_token=V_kK1wIyLkoAAAAA:fNKS6B2cuxg_JgFOktizcuMrXpSiGakLhLywWtRk3TLD45Lip23Egv6D8-ewFosO3M9OfSIMAZJW


QRPs more common than thought: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/07/landmark-research-integrity-survey-finds-questionable-practices-are-surprisingly-common?fbclid=IwAR1RNM49zft_u2jvu2QQBPPZRfoQ-nVUbPTQSaL1jxn_ZAzEqFAz1SGAFz0

Graph Examples for July 2021

 

 

June 2021

Something I learned just today: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/when-the-minds-eye-is-blind1/

Replicability issues come to Ethology: https://www.the-scientist.com/news-opinion/strange-framework-addresses-bias-in-animal-behavior-research-68395?fbclid=IwAR0k8wVs49LJ1hltabMqeGvd2-NHIfpwlGJoLIU-H_3F_DEkFz1XMR5JSlw

Ketamine study retraction:  https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/951277?src=WNL_mdpls_210521_mscpedit_psych&uac=315526ER&spon=12&impID=3389033&faf=1

https://ucsdnews.ucsd.edu/pressrelease/a-new-replication-crisis-research-that-is-less-likely-be-true-is-cited-more?fbclid=IwAR2gmurbF2CmHNEteZ1veH2OQ2uIY-v-O-Ha3cxYYRgtrLWHxbXAAQTNvOg

https://www.theguardian.com/science/2021/may/22/world-expert-in-scientific-misconduct-faces-legal-action-for-challenging-integrity-of-hydroxychloroquine-study?fbclid=IwAR1EaBCHH_UBVlrO8Lbo-EMM1Hgq1vlENnobQw4RjZOw2xdaBqR1PQDCO7I

Taste test for COVID? - https://www.nationalgeographic.com/science/article/could-a-distaste-for-broccoli-indicate-greater-resistance-to-covid-19?cmpid=org%3Dngp%3A%3Amc%3Dcrm-email%3A%3Asrc%3Dngp%3A%3Acmp%3Deditorial%3A%3Aadd%3DSpecialEdition_20210528&rid=0A89D46A620592340235A3A596B84B9F&fbclid=IwAR2_6wincVq0ivtjRgssO5r_JjL7gAjM2KHQvCK0jA2exNVs7qPD_rKzCrA

A recent critique of medical research:  https://www.jclinepi.com/article/S0895-4356(21)00170-0/fulltext

Gibberish papers:  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-01436-7?utm_source=twt_nat&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=nature&fbclid=IwAR0Aw5XUpEPeNSucYWUF4GzJM2K0eLhfVE1cT7GtfTHh7nqEoYcob2dVPxE

Confessions of qrps:   https://devonprice.medium.com/questionable-research-practices-ive-taken-part-in-754b74dcaa51


Positive Psychology:https://www.chronicle.com/article/positive-psychology-goes-to-war?fbclid=IwAR39hvhzS8KbRdDlG-j02tzG5mWRJg7MHvTbdgiYkUTusUqjPtyJ4DfUQN0

SEM

History of SEM (rather slow, but good if you are interested in why things are done the way they are) : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yc8zyly5wJs

Lengthy course on SEM:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eKkESdyMG9w

A short introduction to SEM (I find this one harder to follow than the one above, but it is less than one fourth the length: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lMj9MfafyV0

Why use SEM: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-m4ag3WQcCw

Episode 1 of a longer course done by the same people as the one above, The whole series runs about 2 hours.: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wHFrgp3SQMI

Yet another introduction - this one provides a better explanation of latent variables:  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfogToduqGQ

 May 2021

Some odds and ends I have come across in the last month:

Interesting article on reproducibility.  It doesn't only hit the social sciences:  Reproducibility issues in physics:  https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-021-00954-8?fbclid=IwAR0qbalwMzWgvY0_4NS4gDsJ2YRr6nwZU1j1xtRglJBcI1AyJFjzuoFKlA0

Magic mushrooms for depression:  https://www.sciencemediacentre.org/expert-reaction-to-phase-2-trial-comparing-psilocybin-and-escitalopram-for-depression/?fbclid=IwAR35Zad_LqV9E_ZOh13xDms20vpOosEgWs2aLjWPEpkcFVcXtV64m7KRrB0

Good overview of many of the things that are often done wrong in presenting graphical information: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/3-questions-to-ask-yourself-next-time-you-see-a-graph-chart-or-map?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Another article on presentation of information: https://getpocket.com/explore/item/designers-and-statisticians-disagree-on-what-makes-a-good-information-graphic

Last month there was a request to review Odds Ratios and related calculations.  After giving it some thought and realizing that these are topics that are best presented with visual aids, I thought it best to curate some of the better videos I have found on the topic rather than trying to present the material in a meeting that most seem to attend via phone.  The links below cover Odds Ratios, Relative Risk, Risk Difference, and Specificity and Sensitivity.  All are basically contingency table calculations but different approaches are best used to answer different questions.

If you want to understand what is going on in calculating odds ratios, Mike Marin's videos are a good resource. He actually presents things in terms of probability and shows how the  traditional A-B-C-D table is set up.

In video #30 Marin discusses Odds Ratios, Relative Risk, and Risk Difference, what they are and how they relate to each other.
In video 31 he looks at the application of contingency table analysis to case control study calculations.

#30 - Odds Ratio, Relative Risk, Risk Difference : https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JmuciUfCJ_w&t=151s  Number needed to treat gets a brief mention(at time  6:05), where he notes that it is essentially 1over the Risk Difference.This is a good overview  of the relationships among the various calculations.

#31 - Case Control Study and Odds ratio: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NqsSun9HZfI&t=450s

Specificity and sensitivity (Not Marin, but a good video from the Clinical Information Sciences YouTube Channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Doa_QqtAexU&list=WL&index=9

Unfortunately Marin does not have a video on Number Needed to Treat. TheNTT.com does, however, have a good explanation. https://www.thennt.com/thennt-explained/

If you only need to do the arithmetic (easy enough by hand, but computers make many fewer mistakes in basic calculations), this link goes to several calculators, one of which is NTT.  https://clincalc.com/Statistics/

Here is an interesting (but kind of lengthy) article on p-values: https://surfdrive.surf.nl/files/index.php/s/gi8KrNL7vjTzOmB

A little rusty on basic statistical concepts? https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kyjlxsLW1Is This sit is also a good resource for general statistical concepts.  

Statistical software:  Depending on the background of your undergraduate statistics professor, you likely learned to use SPSS, Excel, SAS. or R.  

SPSS seems to be the most commonly used package but costs money to obtain.  Most of my students will never use a statistics package enough (or need the sophisticated analysis capabilities), so it isn't one I tend to use.

Excel tends to be used in business statistics courses.  Professional feel researchers use SPSS, but most students have access to Excel and will continue to have access to it when they get out into the business world.  Real statisticians hate excel, but it is probably good enough for most purposes.

SAS is another professional level package but does not seem to be as readily available as SPSS.  I grew up with SAS and have always preferred it but haven't had reason to use it for years.

R is a free, cross platform (Mac, PC, and even Linux) software package and is the one I use for my undergraduate classes.  Combined with an IDE such as RStudio, it is reasonably easy to learn for basic analyses and, with add-on packages (also generally free) can be used for most any analyses you might need to run.  The more advanced features are also more difficult to implement, but basic analyses are not too bad at all.

JASP and Jamovi - Are both free, R based packages that add a GUI to the basic functionality of R.  This makes them act more similar to SPSS but also somewhat limits the functionality to those things that are programmed into the interface. I have not used JASP and have not used Jamovi for a while (last time I downloaded it, the program claimed all of my data files as its own and they all opened automatically in Jamovi.  The only way I could reclaim them was to remove the program.  As I was using RStudio to teach my classes it seemed a good idea to remove Jamovi.

Both JASP and Jamovi get good reviews and are probably worth a try if you want to avoid being made fun of for using Excel but don't want to spend the money to get SPSS or SAS.  JASP is particularly liked by people who are in to Baysian statistical analyses.

Links:
https://www.r-project.org/ for the R software and

https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/ for the RStudio IDE (Get the free desktop version.)

https://jasp-stats.org/  to download the JASP software

https://www.jamovi.org/  for Jamovi

April 2021

 April Links

Sudden genius:  https://getpocket.com/explore/item/the-mystery-of-why-some-people-become-sudden-geniuses?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Fasting benefits:  https://getpocket.com/explore/item/japanese-fasting-study-reveals-complex-metabolic-changes-in-the-human-body?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Astra-Zeneca engaged in ORPs?: https://www.nytimes.com/2021/03/23/business/astrazeneca-vaccine-questions.html?campaign_id=60&emc=edit_na_20210323&instance_id=0&nl=breaking-news&ref=cta&regi_id=95051430&segment_id=54024&user_id=8362b7b0d86ec731a0c894eaaf11c89a

Neanderthal genes and COVID: https://www.economist.com/science-and-technology/2021/02/24/dna-from-neanderthals-affects-vulnerability-to-covid-19?utm_campaign=editorial-social&utm_medium=social-organic&utm_source=facebook&fbclid=IwAR3yjeGhhAJrjuBivMZTi17JHZtWXhXSzTKFJAZZW35bCn_e10enIVLsV5o

No evidence for COVID related mental health spike: https://psyarxiv.com/pqct5/?fbclid=IwAR3T2wLL6nv5N76n9vmlpjyOed9uRJaJccmrT1nSKyp0QkOSA3OvAJp5chw

Top psychologist faked data?: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/04/top-german-psychologist-fabricated-data-investigation-finds?fbclid=IwAR1MJiSXa9OvVUsX27UTyittEdg2KoXewcPjgNBJVfV5urrl93IvjXkrozY

Is all of Physics wrong?:  https://www.salon.com/2021/04/10/muon-g-2-experiment-skepticism-standard-model/?fbclid=IwAR2_E9fJPEH9fOqtwym8rOMNOYC2br9r8A7pWwgmmMOC_GuAHNAlCdkWThE

March 8 Links

 Treating syphilis without antibiotics:  https://uknowledge.uky.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?article=1082&context=microbio_facpub

Cheese, yes or no: https://www.wired.com/story/cheese-actually-isnt-bad-for-you/?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Editor steps down: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/946420?src=WNL_mdpls_210226_mscpedit_psych&uac=315526ER&spon=12&impID=3216163&faf=1

Favoritism in publication: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/02/journals-singled-out-favoritism?utm_campaign=SciMag&utm_source=JHubbard&utm_medium=Facebook&fbclid=IwAR1bpxW3Xg2s-Xuy5AQee_r69p3kOeImIiWPtWoGrLsRmsSytZduKgg_xXo

Just for fun: https://www.sciencefriday.com/segments/lucid-dreams-communicate/?fbclid=IwAR0MXdSIdMQBONHlUzwN-lB8jSEXusTzUKMsYyQSDZbhOU2ite5evkyg5nM

https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2021/03/critics-slam-letter-prestigious-journal-downplayed-covid-19-risks-swedish?fbclid=IwAR0JuJ6QOLDDwK4pyl_9La4oMRCk1FHmVRGNQV9_z_7fykmDimEtK4AOvS8

Big 5 Quiz:  https://projects.fivethirtyeight.com/personality-quiz/

A Myers-Briggs type of test:  https://www.16personalities.com/personality-types

 January/February 2021 Links

AI on universal emotions: https://www.nature.com/articles/d41586-020-03509-5


She's not a real doctor: https://www.medscape.com/viewarticle/942992?nlid=138837_2051&src=WNL_mdplsnews_201225_mscpedit_psyc&uac=315526ER&spon=12&impID=2759495&faf=1

Dunning-Kruger Take-home message:
- The Dunning-Kruger effect was originally described in 1999 as the observation that people who are terrible at a particular task think they are much better than they are, while people who are very good at it tend to underestimate their competence
- The Dunning-Kruger effect was never about “dumb people not knowing they are dumb” or about “ignorant people being very arrogant and confident in their lack of knowledge.”
- Because the effect can be seen in random, computer-generated data, it may not be a real flaw in our thinking and thus may not really exist:
https://www.mcgill.ca/oss/article/critical-thinking/dunning-kruger-effect-probably-not-real?fbclid=IwAR3yq1jjr1fjD5vuybDykdLcnW1InJb_RSj9cu2SKfX82nwrFgPgMg_g-M0

Another DKE: https://doi.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fxge0000579&fbclid=IwAR1Od7g2kLsDt939xXOtMsRi9xA1WJtU0ltIGcT9Ei-Dl8F4vD3T1jyi2zc

Subliminal affect:  https://replicationindex.com/2021/01/04/unconscious-emotions-mindless-citations-of-questionable-evidence/?fbclid=IwAR2UF-uIQ6YAY7PdYO_l__NEP433yvbpbwAW6uRa-Uddg3oqZdR4Zee5FxM

Does brain training really work: https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/does-brain-training-actually-work/?fbclid=IwAR2TYvuvM0F4nB8qzWxsLki1rWLGXotVVX4XuNwCQxlHJc4NcMnycUzxQoo

Lizard people running the country: https://u.osu.edu/vanzandt/2018/04/18/the-world-is-controlled-by-a-group-of-elite-reptiles/comment-page-1/?fbclid=IwAR3vvnRL65A5dfBHOz90XJKlNHUTpz2nUmVl2G21A76mH891KcViQ5yOuO8

Intermittent Fasting (from 2018): https://getpocket.com/explore/item/why-backers-of-intermittent-fasting-believe-it-can-slow-aging?utm_source=pocket-newtab

Hans Eysenck: https://www.sciencemag.org/news/2020/07/misconduct-allegations-push-psychology-hero-his-pedestal?fbclid=IwAR2CsHvBOj2s0KrG5-7tpwb24Cg0YbfVxtyhUwCI89pc-9yxjaqFWL83Fj4