Are within-subjects designs transparent?

Abstract

In the field of judgment and decision making (JDM), it is sometimes argued that within-subjects designs should be avoided because they are transparent. This claim ignores that between- and within-subjects designs are frequently not interchangeable. The transparency of within-subjects replications of four between-subjects JDM experiments was empirically tested. None of the replications were found to be transparent, and further, transparency did not in any way affect the success or failure of the replications. It was also found that members of the Society for Judgment and Decision Making were not able to predict how transparent tasks would be when presented within subjects, suggesting that researchers have no special insight into what will or will not prove transparent to participants.