Using Replication Projects in Teaching Research Methods

It is suggested that replication projects may be valuable in teaching research methods, and also address the current need in psychology for more independent verification of published studies. Their use in an undergraduate methods course is described, involving student teams who performed direct replications of four well-known experiments, yielding results which were subsequently published online. Illustrative data are given for the one successful replication and three failures obtained, and practical suggestions are given for incorporating replication projects into a methods course as an alternative to the usual term project. It is also noted that the published success rates of replication attempts appear to be higher for those studies that were performed as class projects.