Professor Kievit, leading the project, explains, " Fluid reasoning is the ability to figure out abstract, novel problems not reliant on specific knowledge. Individual differences in this ability are surprisingly predictive of outcomes such as school success, longevity and morbidity, socio-economic outcomes, mental and physical health. However, the standard tests of this skill such as the Ravens Matrices and Cattell Culture Fair test are copyrighted and expensive, preventing access by less well-resourced countries, practitioners, and labs. With our Open Science project, we will develop, validate and make available an effectively unlimited set of matrix reasoning items to the global community."
Postdoc Nicholas Judd, tasked with adapting existing software to create user-friendly stimuli, expresses his enthusiasm for the project. " Our set of stimuli will be entirely free, and validated in a large group of people, so that people will have a scientifically valid resource. Crucially, we will make enough stimuli that people can also use our items in, for instance, experience sampling approaches where you might want to measure these skills very regularly.”
PhD student Jordy van Langen reflects on their previous Open Science project on Raincloudplots, where they developed a data visualization package (ggrain) and conducted workshops. He notes, "We enabled people to integrate open data visualization practices into their work. With this new project, we are expanding in a new direction, still guided by our Open Science principles and plans."
Kievit appreciates the NWO's active support for Open Science projects, stating, "I find it very exciting that the NWO actively backs Open Science projects and explicitly considers our track record in the evaluation process. This demonstrates that investing in communal projects and resources is not only inherently rewarding and valuable but increasingly recognized as a scholarly contribution."
More information
Read the newsarticle of the NWO '30 new projects launched in second round Open Science fund' for more information.