1: Paradigm-Driven Research

Promote and reward paradigm-driven research

Other Information:

Whereas conceptual replication is used only to confirm prior results, another relatively common research strategy, paradigm-driven research, can be used for both confirming and disconfirming prior results. Paradigm-driven research accumulates knowledge by systematically altering a procedure to investigate a question or theory, rather than varying many features of the methodology—by design or by accident. This offers an opportunity to incorporate replication and extension into a single experimental design (Roediger, 2012). Paradigm-driven research balances novelty and replication by building new knowledge using existing procedures. Effective use of this approach requires development of standards, sharing and reuse of materials, and deliberate alteration of design rather than wholesale reinvention. For example, the Deese-Roediger-McDermott paradigm for studying false memories (Roediger & McDermott, 1995) has been adapted to examine how aging (Butler, McDaniel, Dornburg, Price, & Roediger, 2004), mood (Storbeck & Clore, 2005), and expectations (Schacter, Israel, & Racine, 1999) influence the frequency of false memories (see Gallo, 2010, for a review). The subsequent findings reinforce the original results through direct replication and extend those findings by identifying moderating influences, mechanisms, and boundary conditions. A paradigm-driven approach provides confidence in the validity of an effect (or doubt if it fails to replicate) while simultaneously extending knowledge in new directions.

Stakeholder(s):

• Research Authors: It is easy to do more paradigm-driven research if authors make their paradigms available to others. The primary risk of paradigm-driven research is that research questions can evolve to being about the method itself rather than the theory that the method is intended to address. Using a single methodology for a theoretical question can reify idiosyncratic features of that methodology as being the phenomenon. This is where conceptual replication provides substantial added value. Paradigm-driven research provides confidence in the accuracy of findings. Conceptual replication ensures that the findings are theoretically general, not methodologically idiosyncratic.

Objective(s):

1

Content