Bartoš et al. 2025

Tags:meta analysismetascience paperRCTHover over the tag text for details.
Domainexercise
Data2.2k studies in 215 meta-analyses
Note

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Description

Reference: Bartoš et al. (2025), which builds on another analysis, Singh et al. (2025).

Research question: What is the effect of physical exercise on cognition, memory, and executive function; with extra focus on selective reporting and heterogeneity.

Data availability: Replication data are publicly available via PsyArXiv https://osf.io/preprints/psyarxiv/qr8e2_v1 under Creative Commons By Attribution 4.0 license.

Data description and source: Bartoš et al. (2025) extended the systematic review and meta-meta-analysis by Singh et al. (2025). Singh et al. compiled a set of peer-reviewed systematic reviews with meta-analyses of randomized controlled trials that evaluated exercise effects on general cognition, memory, or executive function. Bartoš et al. extracted study-level effect sizes and standard errors, or information needed to compute them, from study tables, forest plots, and online supplementary materials. Their analysis included 2,239 effect-size estimates from 215 meta-analyses.

Data processing: z-values were computed as effect size divided by its reported standard error. No filtering or recoding beyond variable renaming was required.

Additional variables used: None.

Model of z-values

Characteristic Estimate
Probability of significance 23%
Relative probability of publication for |z| < 1.96 0.81
Successful replication for |z| > 1.96 54%
Correct sign for |z| > 1.96 96%
What do these terms mean?
Probability of significance
The reported value is the assurance: the proportion of significant results adjusted for publication bias.
Relative probability of publication
The relative probability of observing a result below the |z| = 1.96 threshold rather than above it. Values below one indicate lower observation probability below the conventional two-sided significance threshold.
Successful replication
The probability that an exact replication has the same sign and |z| greater than 1.96, conditional on the original result having |z| greater than 1.96.
Correct sign
The probability that the observed effect has the same direction as the true effect, conditional on an original result with |z| greater than 1.96.

Bartoš et al: exercise mixture model plot

References

Bartoš, František, Michaela Lušková, Katerina Bortnikova, et al. 2025. Effect of Exercise on Cognition, Memory, and Executive Function: A Study-Level Meta-Meta-Analysis Across Populations and Exercise Categories. PsyArXiv preprint. https://doi.org/10.31234/osf.io/qr8e2_v1.
Singh, B., H. Bennett, A. Miatke, et al. 2025. “Effectiveness of Exercise for Improving Cognition, Memory and Executive Function: A Systematic Umbrella Review and Meta-Meta-Analysis.” British Journal of Sports Medicine 59 (12): 866–76. https://doi.org/10.1136/bjsports-2024-108589.