2025/01/01 by J. Zhu, Honggang Cai, Yuichi Shoda · 1 voice
Computer Science · #Cognitive Science and Mapping
paper · pdf · doi:10.1525/collabra.128652
openalex publication_date 2025/01/01 · openalex created_date 2025/10/10 · openalex updated_date 2026/07/18
Constraints on Generality statements (COGs, Simons, et al., 2017) address the boundary conditions of study findings, informing readers of the participant populations and methodological and social/cultural/historical contexts within which the reported phenomena are expected to occur. This in turn informs readers of the contexts in which additional studies are needed, facilitating cumulative science. Knowledge of boundary conditions is also crucial for conducting meaningful direct replications of findings (Simons, et al., 2018). In our review of 282 articles, we found that 6 included a separate COG subsection. The proportion of articles that contained any explicit COG statements anywhere in the discussion section ranged from 5% to 40% across the four journals we examined. This proportion was higher in journals whose editors publicly encouraged inclusion of COGs. We believe continued monitoring of the inclusion of COGs would be beneficial not only in psychology but also for other scientific disciplines.