When to hold fast and when to scuttle

There are two kinds of research mistakes: A mistake that scuttles a project and all the rest.

An inherent design confound could end a research project. In category learning research, participants respond to stimuli with motor movements. It is hard (but impossible) to get a response without a motor component. The category learning paradigm includes all the processes associated with motor responses. Any project that wants to look at category learning orthogonally to motor responses is dead in the water.

All other mistakes do not stop a project unless you let them. The worst case scenario is more pilot data than you intended to collect.

An example of a mistake that appears stops a project is discovering someone has published a similar study. Many people scuttle projects at this point. I do not. I now have the opportunity to be a artist and create something more interesting within already proven paradigm.