200139 SE Advanced Seminar: Mind and Brain (2021W)

The reproducibility crisis - spurred by the empirical discovery of low replication rates for psychological studies - has marked the last decade of psychological research, and given rise to the emerging discipline of meta-psychology. Meta-psychology, as a sub-field of meta-science, takes an inter-disciplinary view of psychological methodology, mainly relying on statistical, historical, philosophical, and computational perspectives. In this seminar, we will first cover the recent history of the reproducibility crisis. Then we will discuss the emerging ideas and norms - such as the Open Science movement - that are intended to improve psychological methodology. Moreover, we will trace the historical lineages, and philosophical underpinnings of these methodological proposals. Finally, we will discuss recent efforts to computationally model the effects of novel methodologies on the scientific enterprise.

The seminar will specifically address the following questions:
– What were the causes of the reproducibility crisis and how did it give rise to meta-science and meta-psychology?
– What were the effects of the reproducibility crisis in terms of novel methodological proposals (e.g., stricter statistical standards, increased demands for transparency)?
– What is the historical lineage and philosophical underpinning of these methodological proposals?
– Can emerging computational models of science (“computational meta-science”) help us understand what effect methodological proposals will have, before we implement them in scale?

This seminar is open to students from all fields (all Schwerpunkte).