Commentary to Kaiser and Wilson (2026)

What the paper says

We agree with Kaiser and Wilson's (2026) assessment that the underlying mechanisms of many well-known effects are understudied.In this regard, the authors must be applauded for contributing to one of the most critical aspects of psychological research.Indeed, seemingly similar effects may have diverging causes, and the same process may be responsible for different phenomena.Thus, focusing on mechanisms increases parsimony and precision (e.g., Crusius et al., 2012).We concur that understanding the processes of psychological effects will ultimately increase the likelihood of successful replications.Kaiser and Wilson (2026) argue that valid measurement is necessary for demonstrating that a certain process is the cause of an effect.Moreover, they posit that "only when equipped with valid measures is the stage finally set to build a cumulative network of replicable knowledge" (p.24).We emphatically support the notion that valid measures benefit psychological research.Nevertheless, we would like to add that measuring underlying mechanisms may (1) not be suitable for all research questions, (2) not be the only tool that is relevant when assessing underlying processes, and (3) not be the only priority when conducting replications.