Daniel W. Heck

Philipps University of Marburg | PUM

When making inferences about pairs of objects, one of which is recognized and the other is not, the recognition heuristic states that participants choose the recognized object in a noncompensatory way without considering any further knowledge. In contrast, information-integration theories such as parallel constraint satisfaction (PCS) assume that r...

Previous research has established that higher levels of trait Honesty-Humility (HH) are associated with less dishonest behavior in cheating paradigms. However, only imprecise effect size estimates of this HH-cheating link are available. Moreover, evidence is inconclusive on whether other basic personality traits from the HEXACO or Big Five models a...

The Savage-Dickey density ratio is a simple method for computing the Bayes factor for an equality constraint on one or more parameters of a statistical model. In regression analysis, this includes the important scenario of testing whether one or more of the covariates have an effect on the dependent variable. However, the Savage-Dickey ratio only p...

The last 25 years have shown a steady increase in attention for the Bayes factor as a tool for hypothesis evaluation and model selection. The present review highlights the potential of the Bayes factor in psychological research. We discuss six types of applications: Bayesian evaluation of point null, interval, and informative hypotheses, Bayesian e...

Online collaborative projects in which users contribute to extensive knowledge bases such as Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap have become increasingly popular while yielding highly accurate information. Collaboration in such projects is organized sequentially, with one contributor creating an entry and the following contributors deciding whether to adjus...

The analysis of time series data has become very popular in psychology. Specifying complex time series models involves many researchers' degrees of freedom, meaning that a wide range of plausible analysis strategies are possible. However, researchers typically perform and report only a single, preferred analysis while ignoring alternative assumptio...

Sigurdson, Sainani, and Ioannidis (Journal of Clinical Epidemiology, 2023) discussed homeopathy as a prototypical example of a “null field” where true effects are nonexistent and positive effect sizes reflect bias only. Based on a sample of published randomized placebo-controlled trials, they observed a remarkable effect in favor of homeopathy (Hed...

Simulation studies are widely used for evaluating the performance of statistical methods in psychology. However, the quality of simulation studies can vary widely in terms of their design, execution, and reporting. In order to assess the quality of typical simulation studies in psychology, we reviewed 321 articles published in Psychological Methods...

Objective: Among basic personality traits, Honesty-Humility yields the most consistent, negative link with dishonest behavior. The theoretical conceptualization of Honesty-Humility, however, suggests a potential boundary condition of this relation, namely, when lying is prosocial. We therefore tested the hypothesis that the association between Hone...

Many psychological theories assume that observable responses are determined by multiple latent processes. Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models are a class of cognitive models for discrete responses that allow researchers to disentangle and measure such processes. Before applying MPT models to specific psychological theories, it is necessary to...

Standard response formats such as rating or visual analogue scales require respondents to condense distributions of latent states or behaviors into a single value. Whereas this is suitable to measure central tendency, it neglects the variance of distributions. As a remedy, variability may be measured using interval-response formats, more specifical...

Idiographic network models are estimated on time-series data of a single individual and allow researchers to investigate person-specific associations between multiple variables over time. The most common approach for fitting such graphical vector autoregressive (gVAR) models uses LASSO regularization to estimate a contemporaneous network and a temp...

The measurement of variability in persons' behaviors and experiences using ecological momentary assessment is time-intensive and costly. We propose to use interval responses (i.e., the dual-range slider response format, DRS) as a simple and efficient alternative. Respondents indicate variability in their behavior in a retrospective rating by provid...

Researchers conduct meta-analyses in order to synthesize information across different studies. Compared to standard meta-analytic methods, Bayesian model-averaged meta-analysis offers several practical advantages including the ability to quantify evidence in favor of the absence of an effect, the ability to monitor evidence as individual studies ac...

The weapon identification task (WIT) is a sequential priming paradigm designed to assess effects of racial priming on visual discrimination between weapons (guns) and innocuous objects (tools). We compare four process models that differ in their assumptions on the nature and interplay of cognitive processes underlying prime-related weapon-bias effe...

Many collaborative online projects such as Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap organize collaboration among their contributors sequentially. In sequential collaboration, one contributor creates an entry which is then consecutively encountered by other contributors who decide whether to adjust or maintain the presented entry. For numeric and geographical ju...

van Doorn et al. (2021) outlined various questions that arise when conducting Bayesian model comparison for mixed effects models. Seven response articles offered their own perspective on the preferred setup for mixed model comparison, on the most appropriate specification of prior distributions, and on the desirability of default recommendations. T...

The question of whether recognition memory should be measured assuming continuous memory strength (signal detection theory) or discrete memory states (threshold theory) has become a prominent point of discussion. In light of limitations associated with receiver operating characteristics, comparisons of the rival models based on simple qualitative p...

Cultural consensus theory is a model-based approach for analyzing responses of informants when correct answers are unknown. The model provides aggregate estimates of the latent consensus knowledge at the group level while accounting for heterogeneity in informant competence and item difficulty. We develop a new version of cultural consensus theory...

van Doorn et al. (2021) outlined various questions that arise when conducting Bayesian model comparison for mixed effects models. Seven response articles offered their own perspective on the preferred setup for mixed model comparison, on the most appropriate specification of prior distributions, and on the desirability of default recommendations. T...

Standard response formats such as rating or visual analogue scales require respondents to condense distributions of latent states or behaviors into a single value. Whereas this is suitable to measure central tendency, it neglects the variance of distributions. As a remedy, variability may be measured using interval-response formats, more specifical...

Online collaborative projects in which users contribute to extensive knowledge bases such as Wikipedia or OpenStreetMap have become increasingly popular while yielding highly accurate information. Collaboration in such projects is organized sequentially with one contributor creating an entry and the following contributors deciding whether to adjust...

Many collaborative online projects such as Wikipedia and OpenStreetMap organize collaboration among their contributors sequentially. In sequential collaboration, one contributor creates an entry which is consecutively encountered by other contributors who then decide whether to adjust or maintain the presented entry. Sequential collaboration yields...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, various behavioral measures were imposed to curb the spread of the virus. In a preregistered study based on a quota-representative sample of adult Danish citizens (N = 1,031), we compared the prevalence estimates of self-reported handwashing, physical distancing, and attitudes toward the behavioral measures between peo...

Bayesian t tests have become increasingly popular alternatives to null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) in psychological research. In contrast to NHST, they allow for the quantification of evidence in favor of the null hypothesis and for optional stopping. A major drawback of Bayesian t tests, however, is that error probabilities of statistic...

The last 25 years have shown a steady increase in attention for the Bayes factor as a tool for hypothesis evaluation and model selection. The present review highlights the potential of the Bayes factor in psychological research. We discuss six types of applications: Bayesian evaluation of point null, interval, and informative hypotheses, Bayesian e...

Many psychological theories assume that observable responses are determined by multiple latent processes. Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models are a class of cognitive models for discrete responses that allow researchers to disentangle and measure such processes. Before applying MPT models to specific psychological theories, it is necessary to...

Big data are not yet commonly used in psychological research as they are often difficultto access and process. One source of behavioral data containing both spatial andthematic information is OpenStreetMap, a collaborative online project aiming to developa comprehensive world map. Besides spatial and thematic information about buildings,streets, an...

During the COVID-19 pandemic, different behavioral measures were imposed to curb the spread of the virus. In a pre-registered study based on a quota-representative sample of adult Danish citizens (N = 1,031), we compared the prevalence estimates of self-reported handwashing, physical distancing, and attitudes towards the behavioral measures between...

Davis-Stober and Regenwetter (2019; D&R) showed that even when all predictions of a theory hold in separate studies, not even a single individual may be described by all predictions jointly. To illustrate this "paradox" of converging evidence, D&R derived upper and lower bounds on the proportion of individuals for whom all predictions of a theory h...

Researchers conduct a meta-analysis in order to synthesize information across different studies. Compared to standard meta-analytic methods, Bayesian model-averaged meta-analysis offers several practical advantages including the ability to quantify evidence in favor of the absence of an effect, the ability to monitor evidence as individual studies...

Bayes factors allow researchers to test the effects of experimental manipulations in within-subjects designs using mixed-effects models. van Doorn et al. (2021) showed that such hypothesis tests can be performed by comparing different pairs of models which vary in the specification of the fixed- and random-effect structure for the within-subjects f...

Meta-analysis is the predominant approach for quantitatively synthesizing a set of studies. If the studies themselves are of high quality, meta-analysis can provide valuable insights into the current scientific state of knowledge about a particular phenomenon. In psychological science, the most common approach is to conduct frequentist meta-analysi...

Bayes factors allow researchers to test the effects of experimental manipulations in within-subjects designs using mixed-effects models. van Doorn et al. (2021) showed that such hypothesis tests can be performed by comparing different pairs of models which vary in the specification of the fixed- and random-effect structure for the within-subjects factor....

Davis-Stober and Regenwetter (2019; D&R) showed that even when all predictions of a theory hold in separate studies, not even a single individual may be described by all predictions jointly. To illustrate this 'paradox' of converging evidence, D&R derived upper and lower bounds on the proportion of individuals for whom all predictions of a theory h...

Bayesian t tests have become an increasingly popular alternative to null-hypothesis significance testing (NHST) in psychological research. In contrast to NHST, they allow for the quantification of evidence in favor of the null hypothesis and for optional stopping. A major drawback of Bayesian t tests, however, is that error probabilities of statist...

An experimental report by Platzer and Bröder ([2012]. Most people do not ignore salient invalid cues in memory-based decisions. Psychonomic Bulletin & Review, 19(4), 654–661) claimed that in memory-based decisions, salient attributes are often not ignored even if they are less valid than other cues. When the rank order of cue validities was congrue...

Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models are a class of stochastic models for categorical data that have recently been extended to account for heterogeneity in individuals by assuming separate parameters per participant. These extensions enable the estimation of correlations among model parameters and correlations between model parameters and exter...

In traditional multinomial processing tree (MPT) models for aggregate frequency data, parameters have usually been validated by means of experimental manipulations, thereby testing selective effects of discrete independent variables on specific model parameters. More recently, hierarchical MPT models which account for parameter heterogeneity betwee...

Previous research consistently showed a negative link between Honesty-Humility (HH) and dishonest behavior. However, most prior research neglected the influence of situational factors and their potential interaction with HH. In two incentivized experiments (N = 322, N = 552), we thus tested whether the (subjective) utility of incentives moderates t...

Knowledge Space Theory (KST) aims at modeling the hierarchical relations between items or skills in a learning process. For example, when studying mathematics in school, students first need to master the rules of summation before being able to learn multiplication. In KST, the knowledge states of individuals are represented by means of partially or...

Meta-analysis is the predominant approach for quantitatively synthesizing a set of studies. If the studies themselves are of high quality, meta-analysis can provide valuable insights into the current scientific state of knowledge about a particular phenomenon. In psychological science, the most common approach is to conduct frequentist meta-analysi...

Stimulated by William H. Batchelder’s seminal contributions in the 1980s and 1990s, multinomial processing tree (MPT) modeling has become a powerful and frequently used method in various research fields, most prominently in cognitive psychology and social cognition research. MPT models allow for estimation of, and statistical tests on, parameters t...

People perceive the environment in various idiosyncratic ways, letting them conceptualize places differently. Representation in a data set and communication about places, however, create the need to reach agreement in the place a symbol or word represents. People have thus to integrate their views about a place. In this paper, we discuss how idiosy...

Research on moral decision making usually focuses on two ethical principles: the principle of utilitarianism (= morality of an action is determined by its consequences) and the principle of deontology (= morality of an action is valued according to the adherence to moral norms regardless of the consequences). Criticism on traditional moral dilemma...

Preferences are often based on social information such as experiences and recommendations of other people. The reliance on social information is especially relevant in the case of online shopping, where buying decisions for products may often be based on online reviews by other customers. Recently, Powell, Yu, DeWolf, and Holyoak (2017, Psychologic...

Scientific advances across a range of disciplines hinge on the ability to make inferences about unobservable theoretical entities on the basis of empirical data patterns. Accurate inferences rely on both discovering valid, replicable data patterns and accurately interpreting those patterns in terms of their implications for theoretical constructs....

The article A SIMPLE METHOD FOR COMPARING COMPLEX MODELS:

In his comment on Heck and Erdfelder (2016), Starns (2018) focuses on the response time-extended two-high-threshold (2HT-RT) model for yes-no recognition tasks, a specific example for the general class of response time-extended multinomial processing tree models (MPT-RTs) we proposed. He argues that the 2HT-RT model cannot accommodate the speed-acc...

To ensure robust scientific conclusions, cognitive modelers should optimize planned experimental designs a priori in order to maximize the expected information gain for answering the substantive question of interest. Both from the perspective of philosophy of science, but also within classical and Bayesian statistics, it is crucial to tailor empiri...

Lu, Lee, Gino, and Galinsky (2018; LLGG) tested the hypotheses that air pollution causes unethical behavior and that this effect is mediated by increased anxiety. Here, we provide theoretical and empirical arguments against the generality of the effects of air pollution and anxiety on unethical behavior. First, we collected and analyzed monthly lon...

To ensure robust scientific conclusions, cognitive modelers should optimize planned experimental designs a priori in order to maximize the expected information gain for answering the substantive question of interest. Both from the perspective of philosophy of science, but also within classical and Bayesian statistics, it is crucial to tailor empiri...

Bayesian analysis often concerns an evaluation of models with different dimensionality as is necessary in, for example, model selection or mixture models. To facilitate this evaluation, transdimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) relies on sampling a discrete indexing variable to estimate the posterior model probabilities. However, little atte...

In experiments on multidimensional source memory, a stochastic dependency of source memory for different facets of an episode has been repeatedly demonstrated. This may suggest an integrated representation leading to mutual cuing in context retrieval. However, experiments involving a manipulated reinstatement of one source feature have often failed...

Dishonest behavior poses a crucial threat to individuals and societies at large. To highlight situation factors that potentially reduce the occurrence and/or extent of dishonesty, Ayal, Gino, Barkan, and Ariely (2015) introduced the REVISE framework, consisting of three principles: REminding, VIsibility, and SElf-engagement. The evidence that the t...

Many psychological theories can be operationalized as linear inequality constraints on the parameters of multinomial distributions (e.g., discrete choice analysis). These constraints can be described in two equivalent ways: 1) as the solution set to a system of linear inequalities and 2) as the convex hull of a set of extremal points (vertices). Fo...

Previous research consistently showed that Openness to Experience is positively linked to pro-environmental behavior. However, this does not appear to hold whenever pro-environmental behavior is mutually exclusive with cooperation. The present study aimed to replicate this null effect of Openness and to test political orientation as explanatory var...

Simonsohn, Nelson, and Simmons (2014a) proposed p-curve – the distribution of statistically significant p-values for a set of studies – as a tool to assess the evidential value of these studies. They argued that, whereas right-skewed p-curves indicate true underlying effects, left-skewed p-curves indicate selective reporting of significant results...

Corrupted collaboration, that is, gaining personal profits through collaborative immoral acts, is a common and destructive phenomenon in societies. Despite the societal relevance of corrupted collaboration, the role of one’s own as well as one’s partner’s characteristics has hitherto remained unexplained. In the present study, we test these roles u...

Multinomial processing trees (MPTs) are a popular class of cognitive models for categorical data. Typically, researchers compare several MPTs, each equipped with many parameters, especially when the models are implemented in a hierarchical framework. A Bayesian solution is to compute posterior model probabilities and Bayes factors. Both quantities,...

To facilitate the interpretation of systematic mean differences in within-subject designs, Nathoo, Kilshaw, and Masson (2018, Journal of Mathematical Psychology, 86, 1-9) proposed a Bayesian within-subject highest-density interval (HDI). However, their approach rests on independent maximum-likelihood estimates for the random effects which do not ta...

The Savage-Dickey density ratio is a simple method for computing the Bayes factor for an equality constraint on one or more parameters of a statistical model. In regression analysis, this includes the important scenario of testing whether one or more of the covariates have an effect on the dependent variable. However, the Savage-Dickey ratio only p...

Bayesian analysis often concerns an evaluation of models with different dimensionality as is necessary in, for example, model selection or mixture models. To facilitate this evaluation, transdimensional Markov chain Monte Carlo (MCMC) relies on sampling a discrete indexing variable to estimate the posterior model probabilities. However, little atte...

The randomized response (RR) technique was developed to improve the validity of measures assessing attitudes, behaviors, and attributes threatened by social desirability bias. The RR removes any direct link between individual responses and the sensitive attribute to maximize the anonymity of respondents and, in turn, to elicit more honest respondin...

When measuring psychological traits, one has to consider that respondents often show content-unrelated response behavior in answering questionnaires. To disentangle the target trait and two such response styles, extreme responding and midpoint responding, Böckenholt (2012a) developed an item response model based on a latent processing tree structur...

Multinomial processing tree models assume that discrete cognitive states determine observed response frequencies. Generalized processing tree (GPT) models extend this conceptual framework to continuous variables such as response times, process-tracing measures, or neurophysiological variables. GPT models assume finite mixture distributions, with we...

Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010) found that --compared to participants who adopted constrictive body postures-- participants who adopted expansive body postures reported feeling more powerful, showed an increase in testosterone and a decrease in cortisol, and displayed anincreased tolerance for risk. However, these power pose effects have recently com...

Multinomial processing trees (MPTs) are a popular class of cognitive models for categorical data. In typical applications, researchers compare several MPTs, each equipped with many parameters, especially when the models are implemented in a hierarchical framework. The principled Bayesian solution is to compute posterior model probabilities and Baye...

In surveys concerning sensitive behavior or attitudes, respondents often do not answer truthfully due to social desirability bias. To elicit more honest responding, the randomized response (RR) technique aims at increasing the perceived and actual anonymity by prompting respondents to answer with a randomly modified and thus uninformative response....

Decision strategies explain how people integrate multiple sources of information to make probabilistic inferences. In the past decade, increasingly sophisticated methods have been developed to determine which strategy explains decision behavior best. We extend these efforts to test psychologically more plausible models (i.e., strategies), including...

In previous research, pro-environmental behavior (PEB) was almost exclusively aligned with in-group cooperation. However, PEB and in-group cooperation can also be mutually exclusive or directly conflict. To provide first evidence on behavior in these situations, the present work develops the Greater Good Game (GGG), a social dilemma paradigm with a...

Inferring processes or constructs from performance data is a major hallmark of cognitive psychometrics. Particularly, diffusion modeling of response times (RTs) from correct and erroneous responses using the Wiener distribution has become a popular measurement tool because it provides a set of psychologically interpretable parameters. However, an i...

Carney, Cuddy, and Yap (2010) found that --compared to participants who adopted constrictive body postures-- participants who adopted expansive body postures reported feeling more powerful, showed an increase in testosterone and a decrease in cortisol, and displayed an increased tolerance for risk. However, these power pose effects have recently co...

Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models are a class of measurement models that account for categorical data by assuming a finite number of underlying cognitive processes. Traditionally, data are aggregated across participants and analyzed under the assumption of independently and identically distributed observations. Hierarchical Bayesian extensio...

Earlier work found that – compared to participants who adopted constrictive body postures – participants who adopted expansive body postures reported feeling more powerful, showed an increase in testosterone and a decrease in cortisol, and displayed an increased tolerance for risk. However, these power pose effects have recently come under consider...

Economic games offer a convenient approach for the study of prosocial behavior. As an advantage, they allow for straightforward implementation of different techniques to reduce socially desirable responding. We investigated the effectiveness of the most prominent of these techniques, namely providing behavior-contingent incentives and maximizing an...

Multinomial processing tree (MPT) models account for observed categorical responses by assuming a finite number of underlying cognitive processes. We propose a general method that allows for the inclusion of response times (RTs) into any kind of MPT model to measure the relative speed of the hypothesized processes. The approach relies on the fundam...