Reproducibility of Psychological Experiments as a Problem of Post-Nonclassical Science

Abstract

A fundamental project on reproducibility carried out in the USA by Brian Nosek in 2015 (the Reproducibility Project) revealed a serious methodological problem in psychology: the issue of replication of psycho- logical experiments. Reproducibility has been traditionally perceived as one of the basic principles of the scientific method. However, methodological analysis of the modern post-nonclassical stage in the development of science suggests that this might be a bit too uncompromising as applied to psychology. It seems that the very criteria of scientific research need to be reconsidered with regard to the specifics of post-nonclassical science, and, as the authors put it, as a result, reproducibility might lose its key status or even be excluded at all. The reviewed problem and the proposed ways of coping with it are of high importance to research and practice in psychology as they define the strategies for organizing, conducting and evaluating experimental research.