Qualitative comparative analysis (QCA) is an empirical research method that has gained some popularity in the social sciences. At the same time, the literature has long been convinced that QCA is prone to committing causal fallacies when confronted with non-causal data. More specifically, beyond a certain case-to-factor ratio, the method is…

Limited research has examined the active ingredients and mechanisms of change of naturalistic developmental behavioral interventions (NDBIs). The present study used an exploratory sequential mixed-methods design to develop a comprehensive Theory of Change of Project ImPACT, an empirically supported NDBI. We used qualitative data from interviews…

In the article "It's Just an Observation," Robinson and Wainer (Educational Psychology Review 35, Robinson, D., & Wainer, H. (2023). It's just an observation. Educational Psychology Review, 35(83), Published online: 14 August, 2023) lamented that educational psychology is moving toward the dark side of the quality continuum, with…

The use of structural equation models for causal inference from panel data is critiqued in the causal inference literature for unnecessarily relying on a large number of parametric assumptions, and alternative methods originating from the potential outcomes framework have been recommended, such as inverse probability weighting (IPW) estimation of…

Purpose: Aging increases risk for hearing loss, cognitive decline, and social isolation; however, the nature of their interconnection remains unclear. This study examined the interplay between age-related hearing loss, cognitive decline, and social isolation in adults by testing the ability to understand speech in background noise, a challenge…

Spontaneous imaginary companion (SIC) creation in childhood is a typical imaginative play behaviour associated with advanced sociocognitive skills; however, the direction of causality has not been established. To investigate this experimentally, researchers must determine whether children can create, on request, qualitatively equivalent imaginary…

The causal view of categories assumes that categories are represented by features and their causal relations. To study the effect of causal knowledge on categorization, researchers have used Bayesian causal models. Within that framework, categorization may be viewed as dependent on a likelihood computation (i.e., the likelihood of an exemplar with…

Including causal links in concept maps enables learners to meaningfully relate concepts to a larger context or problem in terms of how and where concepts apply within the chains of causal events that lead to a given goal or outcome. Given that higher quality maps are produced when students link and sequence events to flow temporally and…

The purpose of this paper is to propose a revision of the well-known Campbellian system for causal research. The revised system, termed the COPS model, applies to both applied and basic research. Five validities are included, where two validities are adopted from the Campbellian system, and the validities are partly hierarchically ordered.…

Mike accidentally knocked against a bottle. Seeing that the bottle was about to fall, Jack was just about to catch it when Peter accidentally knocked against him, making Jack unable to catch it. Jack did not grab the bottle, and it fell to the ground and spilled. In double-prevention cases like these, philosophers and nonphilosophers alike tend to…

Background: Studying causal effects is an important aim in education. Causal relationships indicate how well implements (e.g., interventions) work for the target subjects. A good strategy to get the inference in such relationships is to conduct randomized experiments. However, random assignment is limited in education research, even is discouraged…

Recent interest in promoting replication efforts assumes that there is well-established methodological guidance for designing and implementing these studies. However, no such consensus exists in the methodology literature. This article addresses these challenges by describing design-based approaches for planning systematic replication studies. Our…

Recent interest in promoting replication efforts assumes that there is well-established methodological guidance for designing and implementing these studies. However, no such consensus exists in the methodology literature. This article addresses these challenges by describing design-based approaches for planning systematic replication studies. Our…

Research suggests that whilst not more likely to offend, autistic people are overrepresented within the Criminal Justice System. To date, prevalence estimates are available only for male autistic offenders. Thus, this research aimed to provide the prison-reported rate of autistic female prisoners currently residing in the female prison estate in…

Assessment of student learning is commonly understood as a seemingly objective measurement of learning outcomes. It is seen as fair that assessment targets students' abilities -- not their identities or personalities. This idea fails to acknowledge how assessment transforms its object, the students, often in unintended ways. While higher education…