The benefits of preregistration for hypothesis-driven bilingualism research. Issue 5 (29th November 2021)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Mertzen, Daniela; Lago, Sol; Vasishth, Shravan
• Is Part Of: Bilingualism. Volume 24:Issue 5(2021)
• Page Start: 807
• Page End: 812
• Publication Date: 2021-11-29
• Subjects: preregistration -- open science -- bilingualism -- psycholinguistics -- confirmatory analysis -- exploratory analysis; Bilingualism -- Periodicals; Psycholinguistics -- Periodicals; Language acquisition -- Periodicals; 404.2
• DOI: 10.1017/S1366728921000031
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1366-7289

Abstract

Abstract: Preregistration is an open science practice that requires the specification of research hypotheses and analysis plans before the data are inspected. Here, we discuss the benefits of preregistration for hypothesis-driven, confirmatory bilingualism research. Using examples from psycholinguistics and bilingualism, we illustrate how non-peer reviewed preregistrations can serve to implement a clean distinction between hypothesis testing and data exploration. This distinction helps researchers avoid casting post-hoc hypotheses and analyses as confirmatory ones. We argue that, in keeping with current best practices in the experimental sciences, preregistration, along with sharing data and code, should be an integral part of hypothesis-driven bilingualism research.