"Shifting Sands: Flimsy Food Findings" examines how irreproducible science affects select areas of government policy and regulation governed by different federal agencies. This second report focuses on "Food Frequency Questionnaire" and irreproducible research in the field of nutritional epidemiology, which informs the U.S.…

Experimental psychology is witnessing an increase in research on individual differences, which requires the development of new tasks that can reliably assess variations among participants. To do this, cognitive researchers need statistical methods that many researchers have not learned during their training. The lack of expertise can pose…

This position paper examines the phenomenon of the McNamara Fallacy to analyse flawed conceptions of "success" in mathematics learning, normalised assessment structures and their implications for mathematics education. The established presence of the McNamara Fallacy and the ramifications of this statistical fallacy provide a foundation…

Mistaken beliefs pose a barrier to science learning. For this reason, it is important to understand the circumstances in which they emerge and change. In the current paper, we apply complexity theory to shed light on the nature of mistaken beliefs. The strength of this approach lies in conceptualizing beliefs as dynamic stabilities, a well-defined…

Chalmers recently published a critique of the use of ordinal a[alpha] proposed in Zumbo et al. as a measure of test reliability in certain research settings. In this response, we take up the task of refuting Chalmers' critique. We identify three broad misconceptions that characterize Chalmers' criticisms: (1) confusing assumptions with…

Cronbach's alpha is the most frequently used measure to investigate the reliability of measurement instruments. Despite its frequent use, many warn for misinterpretations of alpha. These claims about regular misunderstandings, however, are not based on empirical data. To understand how common such beliefs are, we conducted a survey study to test…

Despite a lack of empirical evidence to support its existence, previous literature has demonstrated that Learning Styles Theory (LST) enjoys widespread popularity in education, leading many researchers to refer to it as a "myth". This study utilized original survey data to determine Kansas K-12 teachers' level of predilection for LST.…

Several programs of research have sought to assess the replicability of scientific findings in different fields, including economics and psychology. These programs attempt to replicate several findings and use the results to say something about large-scale patterns of replicability in a field. However, little work has been done to understand the…

When a psychologist announces a new research finding, it is often based on a rejected null hypothesis. However, if that hypothesis is true, the claim is a false alarm. Many students mistakenly believe that the probability of committing a false alarm equals alpha, the criterion for statistical significance, which is typically set at 5%. Instructors…

This article looks back at several of the classic ethnographies in British sociology of education and shows that quantitative work played a significant part in many of them, and that quantitative results were part of the evidence used to support claims and arguments put forward by the authors. The article then examines some more recent…

"p" values are commonly reported in quantitative research, but are often misunderstood and misinterpreted by research consumers. Our aim in this article is to provide special educators with guidance for appropriately interpreting "p" values, with the broader goal of improving research consumers' understanding and interpretation…

Background: To respond to the Surgeon General's call to develop, disseminate, and evaluate messages to reduce indoor tanning (IT) in the 2014 Call to Action to Prevent Skin Cancer, an understanding of the IT communication environment is necessary. Purpose: The purpose of this study was to identify the most prevalent false or misleading IT claims.…

Purpose: Speech-evoked neurophysiological responses are often collected to answer clinically and theoretically driven questions concerning speech and language processing. Here, we highlight the practical application of machine learning (ML)-based approaches to analyzing speech-evoked neurophysiological responses. Method: Two categories of ML-based…

The purpose of this article is to provide a critique of the main concepts of qualitative and quantitative methodologies for conducting research. It is written expressly for the novice researcher in an attempt to clarify the major misconceptions and misunderstandings concerning the qualitative-quantitative research polarities. This article will not…

Teachers play an important role in the diagnosis and management of Attention Deficit Hyperactivity Disorder (ADHD). There are no published studies on Indian teachers' knowledge of ADHD. In the present study, the aim was to assess knowledge and misperceptions about ADHD among schoolteachers in Mumbai. A total of 106 teachers from 12 English-medium…