Call for papers: From lab to reality: How psychological protocols and phenomena hold up in the real world

• Deadline for letters of intent: January 31, 2027
• Deadline for manuscript submission: November 1, 2027

• Geneviève Desmarais, Mount Allison University
• Mitchell LaPointe, Mount Allison University
• Daniel Smilek, University of Waterloo

Psychology research is often done in carefully controlled laboratory conditions in order to isolate the impact of specific variables. Though we attempt to use tasks that mimic real-world activities to maximize the ecological validity of our work, the laboratory setting does not always reflect real-world conditions. Consequently, our research may be perceived as disconnected from reality or not representing everyday human functioning.  Some effects may be more difficult to find in the real world. For example, Hayward et al. (2017) showed that measures of social attention in the lab did not correspond to those observed in real interactions. At other times, effects may be underestimated in the lab—Weldon et al. (2026) observed larger audiovisual perceptual effects under noisy conditions that more closely resembled realistic environments. We will invite a set of researchers from different fields of experimental psychology (attention, perception, memory, psycholinguistics, etc.) to provide a wider representation of the ecological validity and applicability of protocols used in experimental research.

The guest editors’ backgrounds are directly relevant to organizing this special issue.

Geneviève Desmarais is a professor in the Department of Psychology at Mount Allison University. Her NSERC-funded research focuses on multisensory integration using three-dimensional objects (Estabrooks, Sohail, Song, & Desmarais, 2023, Desmarais & Penrose, 2021, Desmarais, Meade, Wells, & Nadeau, 2017) as well as audiovisual stimuli (Dyck, Mitchell, Wilbiks, & Desmarais, submitted; Desmarais, Schneeberger, Pearson, & Bubar, 2023). Geneviève is an award-winning teacher, receiving the Tucker Teaching award in 2025 as well as the supervision award from the Biopsychology Society (a Mount Allison student organization). She is currently on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology.

Mitchell LaPointe is an assistant professor of psychology at Mount Allison University. His research is concentrated on the interplay of attention and memory, with projects that include complex scene perception (LaPointe & Milliken, 2017), the effects of divided attention on memory (LaPointe et al., 2022), learning bird song using mnemonics (Ritchie, LaPointe, & Greville, in review), and, more recently, the influence of regular meditation on cognitive functioning. Mitchell is a past recipient of the CSBBCS/CPA Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology best article award for his work on detecting animacy among inanimate LEGO objects (LaPointe et al., 2016).

Daniel Smilek is a professor at the University of Waterloo. His current research focuses on understanding various aspects of attentional engagement, including mind wandering, media multi-tasking, flow, and boredom. He has published over 190 peer-reviewed research articles, which have been collectively cited over 24,000 times (h-index of 79, Google Scholar). He has co-authored several editions of an undergraduate textbook on cognition and regularly engages in knowledge mobilization to private and public sectors, including transportation, health, and education. He currently serves as an associate editor of the British Journal of Psychology and is on the editorial board of the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology. In 2024 he received the Mid-Career Award from the Canadian Society of Brain, Behaviour and Cognitive Sciences (CSBBCS), and in 2026 he received the Distinguished Teacher Award and the Arts Award for Excellence in Teaching at the University of Waterloo.

Interested researchers are invited to submit a letter of intent by January 31, 2027, via email to the guest editors: Geneviève Desmarais, Mitchell LaPointe, and Daniel Smilek.

The deadline for submission of full papers is November 1, 2027, via the Canadian Journal of Experimental Psychology website.

Submissions should indicate in the cover letter that the paper should be considered for this special issue along with three suggested referees.