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Registered Report: A Replication Examining Occupational Experience and Performance on the Water-Level Task

Elizabeth R. Tenney et al.

Psychological Science2026https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251412721article
AJG 4*ABDC A*
Weight
0.50

Abstract

This is a registered report to directly replicate the primary finding in Hecht and Proffitt (1995). Hecht and Proffitt found that those with occupational experience handling liquid in containers performed worse at solving a water-level problem than those in occupations that did not require handling liquids. Shortly after, Vasta et al. (1997) found the opposite: Experience was associated with superior performance on the task. The conflicting findings and the small sample sizes in each study leave the relationship between experience and water-level-task performance uncertain. We addressed these concerns with a high-powered direct replication of Hecht and Proffitt with adults in Germany (N = 407). We failed to replicate Hecht and Proffitt's results, finding that their study had less than 33% power to detect the small, nonsignificant difference that we observed between groups.

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https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251412721

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@article{elizabeth2026,
  title        = {{Registered Report: A Replication Examining Occupational Experience and Performance on the Water-Level Task}},
  author       = {Elizabeth R. Tenney et al.},
  journal      = {Psychological Science},
  year         = {2026},
  doi          = {https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1177/09567976251412721},
}

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Evidence weight

0.50

Balanced mode · F 0.40 / M 0.15 / V 0.05 / R 0.40

F · citation impact0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20
M · momentum0.50 × 0.15 = 0.07
V · venue signal0.50 × 0.05 = 0.03
R · text relevance †0.50 × 0.4 = 0.20

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