Navigating the garden of forking paths for data exclusions in fear conditioning research
Access DataAbstract
In this report, we illustrate the considerable impact of researcher degrees of freedom with respect to exclusion of participants in paradigms with a learning element. We illustrate this empirically through case examples from human fear conditioning research, in which the exclusion of ‘non-learners’ and ‘non-responders’ is common – despite a lack of consensus on how to define these groups. We illustrate the substantial heterogeneity in exclusion criteria identified in a systematic literature search and highlight the potential problems and pitfalls of different definitions through case examples based on re-analyses of existing data sets. On the basis of these studies, we propose a consensus on evidence-based rather than idiosyncratic criteria, including clear guidelines on reporting details. Taken together, we illustrate how flexibility in data collection and analysis can be avoided, which will benefit the robustness and replicability of research findings and can be expected to be applicable to other fields of research that involve a learning element.
ID 187
Authors
Tina Lonsdorf, Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany Maren Klingelhöfer-Jens, Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany Marta Andreatta, Department of Psychology, Biological Psychology, Clinical Psychology and Psychotherapy, University of Würzburg, Würzburg, Germany; Instutute of Psychology, Education & Child Studies, Erasmus University Rotterdam, Rotterdam, Netherlands Tom Beckers, Centre for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology and Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Anastasia Chalkia, Centre for the Psychology of Learning and Experimental Psychopathology and Leuven Brain Institute, KU Leuven, Leuven, Belgium Anna Gerlicher, Faculty of Social and Behavioural Sciences, Programme group Clinical Psychology, University of Amsterdam, Amsterdam, Netherlands Valerie Jentsch, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany Shira Meir Drexler, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany Gaetan Mertens, Department of Psychology, Utrecht University, Utrecht, Netherlands Jan Richter, Department of Physiological and Clinical Psychology/Psychotherapy, University of Greifswald, Greifswald, Germany Rachel Sjouwerman, Department of Systems Neuroscience, University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf, Hamburg, Germany Julia Wendt, Biological Psychology and Affective Science, University of Potsdam, Potsdam, Germany Christian Merz, Institute of Cognitive Neuroscience, Department of Cognitive Psychology, Ruhr University Bochum, Bochum, Germany
Year
2019
DOI of Publication
Persistent Identifier to Dataset
Where was the data collected?
University Medical Center Hamburg Eppendorf, Germany
How to Cite
Lonsdorf, T. B., Klingelhöfer-Jens, M., Andreatta, M., Beckers, T., Chalkia, A., Gerlicher, A., Jentsch, V. L., Meir Drexler, S., Mertens, G., Richter, J., Sjouwerman, R., Wendt, J., & Merz, C. J. (2019). Navigating the garden of forking paths for data exclusions in fear conditioning research. eLife, 8, e52465. https://doi.org/10.7554/eLife.52465