Synthesizing across studies

PSYC 11: Laboratory in Psychological Science

Jeremy R. Manning
Dartmouth College
Spring 2026

When studies agree (and when they don't)

  • When many studies agree, our confidence increases
  • When studies disagree, we need strategies to figure out what's going on
  • Disagreement is often more informative than agreement

Strategies for synthesis

  • Occam's razor: prefer the simpler explanation
  • Look for logic gaps: are there hidden assumptions or missing steps?
  • Create a narrative: tell a coherent story that accounts for the evidence
  • Trust your intuitions: if it doesn't make sense to you, it won't make sense to others

Discussion: Do these papers agree or disagree?

  • Each group: take the 2-3 papers you've been reading for the lit review lab
  • For each pair of papers, discuss:
    • Do the findings support each other, contradict each other, or address different questions?
    • If they disagree, which do you find more convincing, and why?
    • How would you tell a unified story that accounts for both?
  • Be ready to share one interesting agreement or disagreement with the class

Creating a narrative

  • Think about how you'd explain the phenomenon to a friend
  • What key elements do you need? Background, key findings, connections, conclusion
  • A good narrative makes the reader feel like each finding follows naturally from the last

Being honest about uncertainty

  • Be open about what the evidence supports vs. what is speculation
  • Flag alternative interpretations
  • Identify what future work could resolve the remaining questions

Where to find good synthesis writing

  • High-impact journals (Nature, Science, PNAS): written for a broad audience
  • Review papers and opinion pieces (TICS, Nature Reviews Neuroscience): extended synthesis
  • Long-format articles (Psych Review, JEP: General): in-depth theoretical arguments

Apply it to your lab work

  • Continue working on your literature review
  • Focus on synthesizing across your sources, not just summarizing each one
  • Draft the narrative thread that connects your papers