274 experiments engage internal cognitive processing differentially and should be examined with precision within and between studies. We underscore a limitation within the nocebo field to replicate precise findings, as also discussed in detail in chapter 3, which can be overcome by sharing study protocols between researchers and a collaborative consideration of experimental study designs –an important objective for open and reliable science. A lack of consistency and specificity in the research and reproduction of findings in the nocebo literature is an unsurprising feature of a young field of research. Biobehavioral nocebo studies have been striving to contribute novel findings to the knowledge base of learned pain responses, attempting new experimental models, methods, and manipulations each time. Our work in chapters 2 and 3, however, suggests that as the literature is growing, there is a pressing need for confirmatory research, of the kind that will at least keep one eye on comparability and replication of existing studies in the field. Through our systematic and comprehensive reviews in this dissertation, we found many novel paradigms and results, with novelty supposed as a golden standard in scientific publishing, as though an objective in itself. In pain research, however, novelty is not inherently equated to the successful furthering of our understanding of nocebo effects and pain. Yet, grant subsidies for research are mostly awarded for novel research and ethical dilemmas may arise when focusing on replication alone, which complicates the issue of replicating previous findings. While we strived, in this PhD project, to maintain consistent methods throughout our experiments and the existing literature, we also fell short of conducting direct and precise study replications. Indeed, in a field of science that is still in its infancy, chapters 4 to 7 contributed a mixture of reproduced findings (such as that of partial reinforcement in chapter 4), cutting-edge novel methods (such as the application of EEG biomarkers on the imaged experience of nocebo-
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