In the replication, children's posttest outcome scores did not significantly differ across the four instructional conditions, failing to replicate the contingent-instruction advantage of D. Wood et al. (1978)¶
Claim · All claims
Evidence · 1 study · causalr3·q3
Currency · newest study 2025 · not yet checked against its sources · not reviewed by a person
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q3 i? Mean posttest outcome scores (correct unaided operations) did not significantly differ by instructional condition, with Bayes evidence favoring the null. → Smit 2025
Evidence¶
Smit 2025¶
Smit, N., de Kleijn, R., Wicherts, J. M., & van de Pol, J. (2025). What it takes to tutor—A preregistered direct replication of the scaffolding experimental study by D. Wood et al. (1978). Journal of Educational Psychology. Advance online publication. https://doi.org/10.1037/edu0000965
q3 · i? · causal · r3
Preregistered one-way ANOVA on posttest outcome scores in a randomized experiment with 285 three- to four-year-olds across four conditions; the article reports F(3, 281) = 0.97, p = .407, "BF = 17.9" favoring no mean differences. All planned contrasts were nonsignificant, including contingent versus other conditions, t(281) = −0.26, p = .795.
"the mean number of unaided correct operations (or outcome scores) did not significantly differ by condition: F(3, 281) = 0.97, p = .407, with the Bayes factor showing strong evidence in favor of the null hypothesis (BF = 17.9)"
Discussion¶
Related Claims¶
- Children's activity scores did not significantly differ between instructional conditions in the replication, failing to replicate the higher activity of contingently taught children in 1978 — related
- Posttest performance of the replication's contingent condition was far below the original study's contingent condition, a large unregistered difference not seen for the three control conditions — related
- Efficiency scores showed no overall condition difference in the replication, though children in the demonstration condition were less efficient than children in the swing and verbal conditions — related
- Tutor accuracy in applying the contingency rule showed no significant association with children's posttest outcome, efficiency, or autonomy, with near-zero correlations — related
Page metadata
| Field | Value |
|---|---|
type |
claim |
id |
contingent-instruction-no-outcome-advantage-replication |
title |
In the replication, children's posttest outcome scores did not significantly differ across the four instructional conditions, failing to replicate the contingent-instruction advantage of D. Wood et al. (1978) |
description |
In the replication, children's posttest outcome scores did not significantly differ across the four instructional conditions, failing to replicate the contingent-instruction advantage of D. |
status |
review |
evidence_strength |
moderate |
newest_evidence |
2025 |
generated |
by process:wiki-ingest on 2026-10-24 |
trust |
unverified — no one has confirmed this page's content |
sources |
1 — smit-2025 |
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