In cognitive neurosciences, fundamental principles of mental processes and functional brain organization have been established with highly controlled tasks and testing environments. Recent technical advances allowed the investigation of these functions and their brain mechanisms in naturalistic settings. The diversity in those approaches has been recently (Matusz et al. 2019a) classified via a three-category cycle including controlled laboratory, partially naturalistic laboratory, and naturalistic real-world research.
Based on this cycle, we developed the Multidimensional Assessment of Research in Context (MARC) tool to easily delineate the approach researchers have taken in their study. MARC provides means to describe the degree of ecological validity for each component of a study (e.g. sample, location, stimuli, measures etc) and the study’s location on the cycle. The tool comprises seven questions concerning a study’s characteristics. It outputs a summary of those and a compass plot, which can be used for presentations, pre-registration, grant proposals, and papers. It would improve drawing conclusions across studies, and raising awareness for the generalizability of studies.