Literature Positioning (cogpsych-literature-positioning)

Cognitive Psychology gives you room for a substantial introduction — but length is a trap if it becomes a catalogue. Positioning here is about the theoretical contrast class: which models or accounts you adjudicate, what they predict, and why the existing evidence cannot settle the question your program settles. Position against rival models and prior programs, not against a long chronology.

When to trigger

• Drafting the Introduction / theoretical framing
• A reviewer said the contribution is "incremental," "already shown," or "not clearly novel relative to

model X"

• You have a large literature and must organize it around the theoretical question
• Connecting a specific model comparison to a broad question about cognition

How to position in a model-driven venue

1. Open with the theoretical question, framed as a live debate between accounts — not a textbook

history of the phenomenon.

1. Name the rival accounts precisely and state what each predicts. The reader should see the fork

the field is stuck on.

1. Show why existing evidence cannot settle it. Prior studies confound the accounts, lack a model

fit, or test only one design point — make the gap a theoretical gap, not "little is known."

1. State the contribution early. By the end of the Introduction the reader knows the question, the

model(s), the discriminating design, and what is new (adjudication, formalization, boundary, or a new model).

1. Cite to anchor the debate, not to pad. The works that define the rival accounts and the

closest prior programs earn slots; exhaustive background does not.

Reviews, replications, and extensions

• An integrative review must reorganize the field around a theoretical claim, not list studies.
• Frame a replication/extension around the theoretical stakes (which model it tests, why the prior

result's design was inconclusive), not as a bare repetition.

Positioning triage (organize around the debate)

Worked micro-example (illustrative)

A recognition-memory program positions against the dual-process tradition. Weak framing: "Recognition memory has been studied for decades (refs 1-40)." Venue-fit framing:

Question: Does recognition rest on one continuous strength signal or on a
          distinct threshold recollection process?
Rivals:   UVSD (single continuous signal) vs. DPSD (familiarity + threshold
          recollection); they predict different z-ROC shapes.
Why unsettled: most prior tests fit one model only, or use designs where the
          z-ROC shape is not diagnostic, so the fork persists.
Contribution (stated in the Introduction):
          Three experiments engineered to make the z-ROC shape diagnostic,
          with both models fit and compared, adjudicate the debate.
Breadth:  the answer constrains models of memory used across cognitive aging,
          eyewitness, and decision research.

Positioning-stage reviewer pushback and the venue fix

Anti-patterns

• A long chronological review that never names the rival accounts or the fork
• Burying the model comparison and the contribution after pages of phenomenon history
• Positioning against effects rather than against the theories/models that explain them
• "First to show" claims that ignore the closest prior model or program
• Citing exhaustively to seem thorough instead of anchoring the debate

Output format

【Theoretical question】the live debate between accounts
【Rival accounts】what each predicts
【Why unsettled】how prior evidence fails to discriminate them
【Contribution】adjudication / formalization / boundary / new model — stated early?
【Anchor citations】the works that define the rivals + closest priors
【Breadth】who across cognition inherits the answer
【Next】cogpsych-study-design

Supplementary resources

• ../../resources/official-source-map.md — scope, article length, and house style