Dan Quintana
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dsquintana.bsky.social
Dan Quintana
@dsquintana.bsky.social
8.5K followers 750 following 1.1K posts
Professor of Psychology at the University of Oslo | Behavioral neuroendocrinology, psychophysiology, and meta-science 🇦🇺🇨🇴🇳🇴
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dsquintana.bsky.social
Our paper on improving statistical reporting in psychology is now online 🎉

As a part of this paper, we also created the Transparent Statistical Reporting in Psychology checklist, which researchers can use to improve their statistical reporting practices

www.nature.com/articles/s44...
Transparent and comprehensive statistical reporting is critical for ensuring the credibility, reproducibility, and interpretability of psychological research. This paper offers a structured set of guidelines for reporting statistical analyses in quantitative psychology, emphasizing clarity at both the planning and results stages. Drawing on established recommendations and emerging best practices, we outline key decisions related to hypothesis formulation, sample size justification, preregistration, outlier and missing data handling, statistical model specification, and the interpretation of inferential outcomes. We address considerations across frequentist and Bayesian frameworks and fixed as well as sequential research designs, including guidance on effect size reporting, equivalence testing, and the appropriate treatment of null results. To facilitate implementation of these recommendations, we provide the Transparent Statistical Reporting in Psychology (TSRP) Checklist that researchers can use to systematically evaluate and improve their statistical reporting practices (https://osf.io/t2zpq/). In addition, we provide a curated list of freely available tools, packages, and functions that researchers can use to implement transparent reporting practices in their own analyses to bridge the gap between theory and practice. To illustrate the practical application of these principles, we provide a side-by-side comparison of insufficient versus best-practice reporting using a hypothetical cognitive psychology study. By adopting transparent reporting standards, researchers can improve the robustness of individual studies and facilitate cumulative scientific progress through more reliable meta-analyses and research syntheses.
November 14, 2025 at 8:43 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
The fourth tier
November 8, 2025 at 3:25 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Me, hearing ‘Ok Computer’ for the first time when I was like 15
Good, better, best meme. Airbag, paranoid android, karma police
November 8, 2025 at 12:30 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Right place, right time.
The 'change my mind' meme. The message is: The psych reform movement would never have happened without twitter
November 7, 2025 at 3:27 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Prepping for a workshop tomorrow, in which I'm covering sample size calculation and power analysis, among other topics
When you hear someone say, “that study is underpowered”, remember: - A ‘study’ cannot be underpowered, but rather a statistical test and design combination - A more precise framing is to ask, “underpowered to detect what? Don’t rely on effect size benchmarks and rules of thumb, unless you don’t know where to begin
November 5, 2025 at 9:56 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
LLMs can be useful for some things, but simulating human research participant responses isn’t one of them
However, recent work demonstrates that demographically prompted LLMs cannot accurately simulate diverse identities. Prompted LLMs are more likely to represent majority groups' stereotypes about minority groups than minority groups' own standpoints [12,13]. For instance, one study [13] prompted LLMs with the identity of Black woman. GPT-4 started generations with phrases such as 'Hey girl' and 'Oh, honey'; Llama-2 started nearly every response with 'Oh, girl', and used phrases including I'm like, YAASSSSS' and 'That's cray, hunty!' In addition, demographic prompting flattens diverse identities into narrow categories, limiting researchers' ability to observe and understand diversity within those categories [13,55]. Demographic prompting misrepresents people who are chronically under-represented in cognitive science research, a form of representational harm [56].
October 22, 2025 at 6:30 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Here are two "I can't believe these are free" online stats texts books that cover both underlying principles and practical applications in R that I regularly refer to.

Learning Statistics with R
learningstatisticswithr.com

Doing Meta-Analysis with R bookdown.org/MathiasHarre...
A screenshot with the following Learning statistics with R: A tutorial for psychology students and other beginners. (Version 0.6.1) Danielle Navarro (bookdown translation: Emily Kothe) 2019-01-11 Overview Learning Statistics with R covers the contents of an introductory statistics class, as typically taught to undergraduate psychology students, focusing on the use of the R statistical software. The book discusses how to get started in R as well as giving an introduction to data manipulation and writing scripts. From a statistical perspective, the book discusses descriptive statistics and graphing first, followed by chapters on probability theory, sampling and estimation, and null hypothesis testing. After introducing the theory, the book covers the analysis of contingency tables, t-tests, ANOVAs and regression. Bayesian statistics are covered at the end of the book. A screenshot with the following Welcome! Welcome to the online version of “Doing Meta-Analysis with R: A Hands-On Guide”. This book serves as an accessible introduction into how meta-analyses can be conducted in R. Essential steps for meta-analysis are covered, including pooling of outcome measures, forest plots, heterogeneity diagnostics, subgroup analyses, meta-regression, methods to control for publication bias, risk of bias assessments and plotting tools. Advanced, but highly relevant topics such as network meta-analysis, multi-/three-level meta-analyses, Bayesian meta-analysis approaches, and SEM meta-analysis are also covered. The programming and statistical background covered in the book are kept at a non-expert level. A print version of this book has been published with Chapman & Hall/CRC Press (Taylor & Francis)
October 17, 2025 at 8:43 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Nice to get away to the mountains for a short break. Can you spot the cabin in this photo?
A photo with mountains in the background and a white dog in the foreground. It is overcast weather
September 29, 2025 at 9:14 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
About halfway through this article on spotting pseudoscience there’s an ad about your ‘dopamine addiction type’
A Simple Guide to Spotting Pseudoscience We need to understand what pseudoscience is and how to recognize it. KEY POINTS • Pseudoscience mimics science. • Its apparent certainty and quick fixes are appealing. • We can detect pseudoscience by looking out for nine red flags. An ad about your dopamine addiction type
September 20, 2025 at 6:41 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
I give this AI generated image I found on LinkedIn a 3 out of 10 because at least the brain is facing the right way
An AI generated image of a brain with many errors
September 18, 2025 at 5:56 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
My institution did this a few years ago. Cool idea, especially for a sustainability conference www.mn.uio.no/ibv/english/...
The University of Oslo has a goal to reduce plane travel by 10% in 2020, and so to encourage its delegates to travel in the most sustainable way, they booked an entire train carriage to transport UiO delegates over the mountains to Bergen. This "Sustain-train" or "No-shame-train" served as an exciting preparation for the conference, with talks, speeches, activities and even a music concert to get everyone discussing how small changes, or 'tipping points', can lead to larger social and environmental transformations. Clare presented the results from her master thesis, about environmental pollution in Norwegian killer whales, in the context of SDG 14 which is about protecting life under water.
September 15, 2025 at 12:42 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Also, arancini rule
September 14, 2025 at 9:20 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Heading home after a great few days in Erice for the ‘Neuromodulators of Connection’ meeting 🇮🇹 This is one of my favorite meetings as it focuses on oxytocin and vasopressin research AND the location in an old medieval village is super cool
Me and five other members of my lab A narrow street in a medieval village
September 14, 2025 at 9:14 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Meta-analyses can become outdated quickly, especially in fast moving fields. A ‘living’ meta-analysis updates after set periods using the same criteria as the original search
September 8, 2025 at 4:43 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
New preprint! 🎉

The active monitoring of oxytocin research evidence (AMORE) platform osf.io/preprints/ps...

In which we introduce a ‘living’ meta-analysis platform for biobehavioral oxytocin studies that was shaped by 24 co-authors via consensus.
Oxytocin, an evolutionarily conserved neuropeptide, plays a crucial role in various physiological and behavioural processes, offering potential therapeutic benefits for several psychiatric and neurodevelopmental conditions. Despite its promise, oxytocin research has been marked by inconsistent results concerning its therapeutic applications and underlying mechanisms. Performing a systematic review and meta-analysis is a popular approach to shed light on mixed findings in a body of literature; however, they can become quickly outdated as new evidence becomes available. Given these challenges, research on oxytocin and its biobehavioural outcomes is ideally positioned for the adoption of ‘living’ meta-analyses, which allow for the continuous integration of new data and updated conclusions. Here we introduce the Active Monitoring of Oxytocin Research Evidence (AMORE) platform (https://amore-project.org), which is a hub that aggregates articles and materials associated with living meta-analyses for biobehavioural oxytocin research. Developed through consensus among 24 expert researchers, a standardized framework was established that either requires or recommends practices ensuring transparency and rigor in living meta-analyses featured on the AMORE platform. Overall, AMORE has been designed to advance oxytocin biobehavioural research by the timely integration of emerging evidence through transparent living meta-analyses
September 8, 2025 at 4:39 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
So then this is the set up for your entry level team?
August 27, 2025 at 7:21 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
I knew someone who was a CEO’s executive assistant. Dude just had a dumb phone and never used a computer. The CEO got their EA to print out important emails and they would either write their response in pen or record a response via dictaphone
August 27, 2025 at 5:18 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Are students motivated by being asked to make scientific memes as part of class and what do they think when instructors publicly share their creations?

journals.sagepub.com/doi/full/10....
August 26, 2025 at 1:13 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Big shout out to all the volunteers who have been working through the moderation backlog at PsyArXiv
OSF Notifications OSF Recent Activity Music therapy and vagally mediated heart rate variability: a systematic review and narrative synthesis Hello Daniel Quintana, Your submission Music therapy and vagally_ mediated heart rate variability: a systematic review and narrative synthesis, submitted to PsyArXiv has been accepted by the moderator and is now discoverable to others. The moderator has also provided a comment that is only visible to contributors of the preprint, and not to others:
August 25, 2025 at 6:36 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
I think it's time to retire the idea that oxytocin is exclusively a 'social' hormone.

In our latest preprint, led by @kjerstimw.bsky.social, we argue that oxytocin should be reframed as a behavioral flexibility hormone osf.io/preprints/os...
Abstract Oxytocin is a neuropeptide that has historically been recognised for its role in childbirth, lactation, and sexual reproduction. Subsequently, research expanded its influence to include social bonding and behaviors, emphasising its role in facilitating interpersonal relationships. More recent studies, however, have revealed its broader influence, extending to non-social behaviors and cognitive processes, underscoring its ability to modulate a diverse array of behavioral and mental functions. This evolving understanding calls for a critical re-evaluation of oxytocin’s classification as a “social” hormone. The Allostatic Theory of Oxytocin, which integrates both psychological and physiological dimensions, provides an alternative framework that accounts for how oxytocin modulates both social and non-social behaviors. At the core of this framework is behavioral flexibility, which is essential for adapting to dynamic environments. In this review, we explore the role of oxytocin in facilitating behavioral and cognitive flexibility using mechanistic, survival, and evolutionary perspectives. Additionally, we focus on the interactions between oxytocin and other signalling systems that influence behavioral flexibility. Collectively, our findings underscore the benefits of reframing oxytocin’s function in behavior within a broader framework that encompasses both social and non-social aspects. This more expansive perspective not only deepens our understanding of oxytocin’s multifaceted roles but also opens avenues for novel research approaches.
August 20, 2025 at 7:05 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
I'm trying to visualise the living meta-analysis process to explain the concept at a glance for someone that's never heard of one before. How can I improve this visualisation? Too much info here? Too little info?
August 18, 2025 at 6:17 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
"An error was defined as a decision made by a single reviewer in abstract screening that was inconsistent (i.e., false inclusion or false exclusion) with the final included list of studies that that underwent abstract screening, and full texting screening and were eligible for data extraction..."
Fig 1. Errors occurred during systematic review abstract screening.
August 13, 2025 at 9:57 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Tried putting a Cohen's d of 143 (!) into the Cohen's d visualiser, but it breaks when Cohen's d is larger than 2. Personally, I think it should break at the "chocolates vs. poop" preference threshold of d = 4.52.
August 12, 2025 at 1:40 PM
dsquintana.bsky.social
Meta-analysis is a good solution for evaluating outcomes in rare populations. Individual studies (orange squares) have low power, but once you begin aggregating studies, you can really boost statistical power. This plot is for an effect size of g = 0.5 and assumes moderate heterogeneity
August 12, 2025 at 9:30 AM
dsquintana.bsky.social
What's the difference between 'Declined' and 'Auto-Declined'?
A screenshot with links from a review invitation email One option is Decline and another is 'Auto-Decline'
August 12, 2025 at 8:35 AM