How Do Scientific Views Change? Notes From an Extended Adversarial Collaboration.

Area of Science:

• Cognitive Psychology
• Neuroscience
• Aging Research

Background:

• Few extended adversarial collaborations exist, where researchers with opposing theoretical views jointly test predictions.
• Previous collaborations typically resulted in single research articles, not programmatic efforts.

Purpose of the Study:

• To describe an extended, programmatic adversarial collaboration involving three international laboratories with differing views on working memory.
• To examine short-term memory retention and aging effects within this collaborative framework.

Main Methods:

• Programmatic, multi-laboratory adversarial collaboration over several years.
• Joint research with preregistered predictions, methods, and analysis plans.
• Concurrent replication of studies across two laboratories.

Main Results:

• Adversarial collaboration necessitates refining theoretical views to account for a common evidence base.
• Researchers did not abandon favored views but found them converging.
• Research findings were accepted as valid by collaborators with opposing interpretations.

Conclusions:

• Extended adversarial collaboration can lead to more nuanced and convergent theoretical perspectives.
• This model promotes mutual understanding and generates broadly accepted scientific evidence.
• Recommendations are provided for applying this collaborative model to diverse scientific fields.