Effort Lab, School of Psychology, Faculty of Health, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool L3 3AF, UK; Research Centre for Brain and Behaviour, Liverpool John Moores University, Byrom Street, Liverpool, L3 3AF, UK.
Geneva Motivation Lab, FPSE, Section of Psychology, University of Geneva, 40, Bd du Pont-d'Arve, 1205 Geneva, Switzerland; Swiss Center for Affective Sciences, University of Geneva, Geneva, Switzerland.
Int J Psychophysiol. 2024 Nov;205:112438. doi: 10.1016/j.ijpsycho.2024.112438. Epub 2024 Sep 10.
Multiverse analyses-the systematic examination of the effects of decisions that researchers can take over the course of a research project-became more common in recent psychophysiological research. However, multiverse analyses in psychophysiology almost exclusively focus on methodological and statistical decisions that can have a considerable impact on the findings. The role of the conceptual multiverse regarding theory-related research decisions is largely ignored. We argue that the choice of a theory that guides hypotheses, study design, measurement methods, and statistical analyses is the first plane of the psychophysiological multiverse. Depending on the chosen theoretical framework, researchers will choose different methods, and statistical analyses will emphasize specific aspects. We illustrate this process with a research example studying the effects of task difficulty manipulations on cardiovascular effects reflecting effort. We argue in favor of an approach that explicitly acknowledges the various theoretical accounts that can constitute the background of a study and demonstrate how a comparative analytical approach can provide a comprehensive multiverse without increasing type I error due to mere exploration.
多元宇宙分析——系统地检查研究人员在研究项目过程中可以做出的决策的影响——在最近的心理生理学研究中变得更加普遍。然而，心理生理学中的多元宇宙分析几乎只关注于对研究结果有重大影响的方法学和统计学决策。关于与理论相关的研究决策的概念多元宇宙的作用在很大程度上被忽视了。我们认为，指导假设、研究设计、测量方法和统计分析的理论的选择是心理生理学多元宇宙的第一个层面。根据所选的理论框架，研究人员将选择不同的方法，而统计分析将强调特定的方面。我们用一个研究实例来说明这个过程，该实例研究了任务难度操作对反映努力的心血管效应的影响。我们赞成一种方法，该方法明确承认可以构成研究背景的各种理论解释，并展示比较分析方法如何在不由于仅仅是探索而增加 I 型错误的情况下提供全面的多元宇宙。
