Cash Aid to Poor Mothers Increases Brain Activity in Babies, Study Finds
In the supplement what&#x27;s buried is that there were no effects on measured cognitive development in the overall sample.<p>Meaning that in the subsample of parents who received cash disbursements and did EEG, they found differences in EEG, but that the outcome of importance -- cognitive performance -- did not differ.<p>Also, as far as I can tell, the EEG measures did not relate to cognitive performance, which calls into question the validity of the EEG measures as markers of what matters.<p>So, two things:<p>Even when you preregister things, you can cherrypick your findings if you&#x27;re allowed to write it up that way by the editor and reviewers. In some ways this paper is like a window into what might have happened if their results weren&#x27;t preregistered.<p>It raises the question of whether or not these neural measures are really of value, as they don&#x27;t predict the thing of importance.<p>I&#x27;m very in favor of financial assistance to people in poverty (and even those who are more resourced) but this study was poorly done (or at least poorly reported) and does a disservice to those advocating for the importance of social safety nets.