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INTRODUCTIONMany psychology students at both undergraduate and postgraduate level are required to conduct literature reviews. As often as not, little guidance is provided on how this task should be achieved: how the purpose of the review might be defined, what methodologies are available for the search, selection and analysis of relevant literature (and how to choose between alternative strategies to meet the purpose of the review), how the extracted information be best integrated or compared, and not least how the review should be structured and written.This report describes the experiences of the first author in the application of "systematic review methodology" for conducting a major part of her literature review for her PhD thesis. Whilst the systematic reviews methodology was originally developed for reviewing evidence on alternative forms of treatment of practice in the medical field, it is our belief that the approach has a much wider relevance to reviews conducted in psychology in which evidencebased comparisons are to be made. It is certainly the case that the strict systematic review methodology will not always be appropriate or practicable; however there are elements of the processes and procedures of the technique which may well be of use either to individual students or to teaching staff in advising their students on effective practice in conducting reviews. This short report has the primary purpose of alerting readers to the methodology and providing some personal reflections on its application. SYSTEMATIC REVIEWS IN NON-MEDICAL FIELDSSince the late 1970s, systematic reviews have been used in the medical field to provide evidence on the effectiveness of practice and treatment. The evidence has shown that much of what health professionals do is not derived from 'what works', but rather on what practitioners have always done. This finding is not unique to the medical profession, and also occurs in other professional groups including teachers and prison staff.The Cochrane Collaboration (named after the British epidemiologist Archie Cochrane) is an organisation which maintains and prepares systematic reviews of health care interventions and currently consists of approximately fifty collaborative review groups. More recently, systematic review methodology has been expanded for use with other research disciplines such as psychology, education, social psychology and criminology. This expansion has led to the development of two new groups: the Campbell Collaboration (a partner group of the Cochrane Collaboration, established in January 2001) and the Evidence Informed Policy and Practice Centre (EIPPC) at the Institute of Education in London. The Campbell Collaboration aims to synthesize evidence on social and behavioural interventions and public policy, including education, criminal justice and social welfare. The EIPPC has been awarded funding by the DfES to conduct a series of systematic reviews on education.In education, this new wave of systematic review methodology is due in part to changes in policy ...

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With the proliferation of commercial experiment generators and custom software within cognitive psychology and the behavioral sciences, many have assumed that issues regarding millisecond timing accuracy have been largely solved. However, through empirical investigation of a variety of paradigms, we have discovered numerous sources of timing error. These can range from poor scripting practices, to incorrect timing specifications, to hardware variability. Building upon earlier research, we have developed a commercial device and associated software that enables researchers to benchmark most computer-based paradigms in situ and without modification. This gives them the opportunity to correct timing errors where practicable, increase replicability, and reduce variability by altering onset times for stimuli, by replacing inaccurate hardware, or by post hoc statistical manipulation should the source of error be constant. We outline the features of the device and accompanying software suite, stress the importance of such independent validation, and highlight typical areas that can be subject to error.

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This case study explored how teachers and children perceive challenges and opportunities at transition. Using Forum Theatre (FT), an interactive drama approach, children were able to show aspects of transitions they perceived as challenging and how these barriers may be overcome. FT offered a tangible reference point for children to discuss their experiences and perceptions of transition during follow-up focus groups. A semantic deductive thematic analysis led to a range of emotional, social and systemic challenges and opportunities being identified. The paper concludes with reflections on potential implications for practice and suggestions for future research