
Disciplines wax and wane often for incidental reasons. Three examples: statistics, human vision research, adult developmental psychology… 
-
-
Σ The meta-rational revolution in statistics is partly driven by external force, namely the replication crisis and research practices reform movement. (Fast computers enabling new methods do also play a role.) 1︎⃣Show this thread -

Human vision research appears to have ended around 1990 (based on a recent two-day-long literature search). That’s when I finished my PhD and stopped following the field.
What happened? There were exciting open questions, and good methods for addressing them.Show this thread -

My impression is that fMRI killed the field. It had tremendous promise, so everyone switched to using it, and then it took a couple decades to figure out it doesn’t really work, and by that time the old methods had been forgotten. 2︎⃣Show this thread -

Adult developmental psychology also ended in the early 1990s. There were strong results, exciting open questions, and good methods. The studies under way in the late 80s, which should have answered key questions, were never published.
Did they get null or ambiguous results?Show this thread -

Theory and evidence suggested that some adults have qualitatively different, and superior, cognitive capacities to others. Tremendous potential if these could be trained (as I think they can, and hope to help show how).Show this thread -

Evidence was that these capacities are unevenly distributed demographically. This could be taken as reason to find ways to enhance cognitive development in disadvantaged groups. Instead, I suspect it was too politically hot, and everyone exited the field. 3︎⃣Show this thread
End of conversation
New conversation -
-
-
The revolution you're talking about seems to be mostly in the area of applications of statistics. Do you have some opinions on the statistical theory part as well?
-
Well, there’s applications, there’s methods, and there’s “philosophy” or meta-rational understanding. I don’t have opinions about the methods (because I don’t know enough, if for no other reason). Not much about applications, either. My opinions are at the “philosophical” level.
- 1 more reply
New conversation -
Loading seems to be taking a while.
Twitter may be over capacity or experiencing a momentary hiccup. Try again or visit Twitter Status for more information.