• Registered Report: A Replicati...

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

Title:
Registered Report: A Replication Examining Occupational Experience and Performance on the Water-Level Task.
Authors:
Tenney ER; Management Department, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah., Rochford K; Management Department, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah., Stillwell A; Management Department, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah., Liu CX; Management Department, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah., Tannenbaum D; Management Department, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah., Hennecke M; Department of Psychology, Ruhr-Universität Bochum., Stefanucci JK; Department of Psychology, University of Utah., Blair BA; Department of Business Administration and Marketing, Goddard School of Business & Economics, Weber State University., Graham J; Management Department, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah., Bonner BL; Management Department, David Eccles School of Business, University of Utah.
Source:
Psychological science [Psychol Sci] 2026 Feb; Vol. 37 (2), pp. 125-135. Date of Electronic Publication: 2026 Feb 09.
Publication Type:
Journal Article
Language:
English
Journal Info:
Publisher: Sage Country of Publication: United States NLM ID: 9007542 Publication Model: Print-Electronic Cited Medium: Internet ISSN: 1467-9280 (Electronic) Linking ISSN: 09567976 NLM ISO Abbreviation: Psychol Sci Subsets: MEDLINE
Imprint Name(s):
Publication: 2010-> : Thousand Oaks, CA : Sage
Original Publication: New York, NY : Cambridge University Press, c1990-
MeSH Terms:
Problem Solving*/physiology , Task Performance and Analysis* , Occupations*, Humans ; Adult ; Male ; Female ; Germany ; Young Adult ; Water ; Middle Aged ; Pre-Registration Publication
Contributed Indexing:
Keywords: cognitive psychology; expertise; intuitive physics; occupational experience; perception; registered report; replication; water-level task
Substance Nomenclature:
059QF0KO0R (Water)
Entry Date(s):
Date Created: 20260209 Date Completed: 20260209 Latest Revision: 20260209
Update Code:
20260210
DOI:
10.1177/09567976251412721
PMID:
41661683
Database:
MEDLINE

*Further Information*

*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.*