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<p>There is significant interest in the development of behavioral interventions to improve cognitive skills. Part of the basic-science foundation of all such endeavors is understanding the mechanisms by which cognitive performance can be altered. While most intervention studies have focused on mechanisms such as persistent load placed upon certain cognitive functions, it has been argued that participant expectations (e.g., placebo effects) may also play a role in intervention study outcomes. Researchers have thus asked whether it is possible to impact cognitive performance via expectation-mechanisms alone. In one such published study, Tiraboschi et al. (<i>Journal of Cognitive Enhancement</i> <i>3</i>(4):436–444, 2019) found that participants who were given positive expectations about the impact of a (likely benign) intervention showed greater enhancements than those given no such expectations on the Useful Field of View (UFOV) visual search task. The current study sought to replicate and extend this finding using similar methods but incorporating several methodological improvements in alignment with current standards for cognitive behavioral interventions. These include improved participant and experimenter masking procedures, improved baseline group matching procedures, and the addition of a negative expectation group. Unfortunately, our results did not replicate the expectation effects found by Tiraboschi et al. (<i>Journal of Cognitive Enhancement</i> <i>3</i>(4):436–444, 2019). Regardless of the information participants were provided about the impact of the intervention, all groups’ UFOV performance between pre- and post-test was equivalent as assessed by Bayesian null hypothesis testing. We discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy (e.g., different populations of participants) as well as potential future directions for the field.</p>

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No Expectancy Effect on Visual Attention Performance After a Single Session of Playing Sudoku: A Failed Replication of Tiraboschi et al. (2019)

  • 期刊论文

  • 发表日期：

    2025年1月28日

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  • Freya Joessel,
  • Emma G. Cunningham,
  • C. Shawn Green

摘要

There is significant interest in the development of behavioral interventions to improve cognitive skills. Part of the basic-science foundation of all such endeavors is understanding the mechanisms by which cognitive performance can be altered. While most intervention studies have focused on mechanisms such as persistent load placed upon certain cognitive functions, it has been argued that participant expectations (e.g., placebo effects) may also play a role in intervention study outcomes. Researchers have thus asked whether it is possible to impact cognitive performance via expectation-mechanisms alone. In one such published study, Tiraboschi et al. (Journal of Cognitive Enhancement 3(4):436–444, 2019) found that participants who were given positive expectations about the impact of a (likely benign) intervention showed greater enhancements than those given no such expectations on the Useful Field of View (UFOV) visual search task. The current study sought to replicate and extend this finding using similar methods but incorporating several methodological improvements in alignment with current standards for cognitive behavioral interventions. These include improved participant and experimenter masking procedures, improved baseline group matching procedures, and the addition of a negative expectation group. Unfortunately, our results did not replicate the expectation effects found by Tiraboschi et al. (Journal of Cognitive Enhancement 3(4):436–444, 2019). Regardless of the information participants were provided about the impact of the intervention, all groups’ UFOV performance between pre- and post-test was equivalent as assessed by Bayesian null hypothesis testing. We discuss possible reasons for this discrepancy (e.g., different populations of participants) as well as potential future directions for the field.