ABSTRACT
In order to contribute usefully to the discourse, our research findings must be valid, relevant, and important. These qualities are the drivers for the attention to replication and generalization. We need to establish that our findings and conclusions are ‘true’, that they are neither chance findings nor distortions. One mechanism for doing so is to expose the work to validation-to replication or repetition and investigation-by others. We need to establish that our questions are significant, and that our findings address those questions usefully. Hence, we hope that the findings generalize, that they apply beyond our particular study to reveal some underlying ‘truth’ applicable to a larger population, set of tasks, or context. We also need to clarify how our findings are bounded-and also what the limits are of the theory that explicates them.
