Abstract
Cognitive tasks are capable of providing researchers with crucial insights into the relationship between cognitive processing and psychiatric phenomena. However, many recent studies have found that task measures exhibit poor reliability, which hampers their usefulness for individual differences research. Here, we provide a narrative review of approaches to improve the reliability of cognitive task measures. Specifically, we introduce a taxonomy of experiment design and analysis strategies for improving task reliability. Where appropriate, we highlight studies that are exemplary for improving the reliability of specific task measures. We hope that this article can serve as a helpful guide for experimenters who wish to design a new task, or improve an existing one, to achieve sufficient reliability for use in individual differences research.
Original language | English (US) |
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Pages (from-to) | 789-797 |
Number of pages | 9 |
Journal | Biological Psychiatry: Cognitive Neuroscience and Neuroimaging |
Volume | 8 |
Issue number | 8 |
DOIs | |
State | Published - Aug 2023 |
All Science Journal Classification (ASJC) codes
- Radiology Nuclear Medicine and imaging
- Cognitive Neuroscience
- Clinical Neurology
- Biological Psychiatry
Keywords
- Behavioral tasks
- Cognitive functions
- Computational psychiatry
- Individual differences
- Psychometrics
- Reliability