
Disciplines wax and wane often for incidental reasons. Three examples: statistics, human vision research, adult developmental psychology… 
-
Show this thread
-
Σ As a student, statistics seemed like the ugliest, more boring, most stagnant field I’d ever heard of.
It’s now the one I’m most excited about. What changed? Smart people realized the boring stuff also doesn’t work. There’s a meta-rational revolution going on in the field.2 replies 8 retweets 18 likesShow this thread -
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.) 1︎⃣1 reply 0 retweets 8 likesShow 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.2 replies 0 retweets 5 likesShow 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. 2︎⃣2 replies 1 retweet 10 likesShow 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?5 replies 0 retweets 7 likesShow this thread -
Replying to @Meaningness
Which were the late 80s studies that were never published? What were the key questions never answered? Demetriou just had a major book out - decades of developmental research. The Baxter Magolda + Mentkowski + King/Kitchener longitudinal studies all have bks/articles. Dawson...
1 reply 0 retweets 0 likes
Thanks for the pointers! I will follow up on this when I get a chance. My literature review may have missed important stuff!
-
-
Replying to @Meaningness
Do have a look at Theo Dawson, Sinnott, Pascual-Leone, Developmental Science (e.g. Overton), Demetriou etc. Someone needs to make an up-to-date family tree graphic for all the schools of Adult Dev. Would really help things imho... ;-)
0 replies 0 retweets 1 likeThanks. Twitter will use this to make your timeline better. UndoUndo
-
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.