{ "schema_version": 1, "period": "2026-08", "period_label": "August 2026", "snapshot_date": "2026-08-19", "title": "August 2026 evidence pulse", "current_distribution": { "total": 973, "reviewed": 46, "practical": 178, "pending_review": 598, "restricted": 151, "trusted_or_practical_share_percent": 23 }, "current_claim_profile": { "source_recorded": 46, "sensitive": 169, "quantitative_claims": 172 }, "month_to_date_activity": { "manual_reviews": 59, "review_status_counts": { "practical": 36, "reviewed": 23 }, "evidence_decisions": 28, "evidence_decision_types": { "propose-protocol": 12, "challenge-existing": 6, "support-existing": 6, "watch": 4 } }, "research_queue": { "candidates": 65, "status_counts": { "challenge-existing": 9, "support-existing": 21, "propose-protocol": 29, "watch": 5, "screening": 1 } }, "reviews": [ { "slug": "weekly-theme-learning-sprints", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a curated practical protocol. Unsupported quantitative and research-sounding claims from the inherited long-form draft are not used in the public build." }, { "slug": "25-minute-pomodoro-focus-sprints", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a curated timer-based focus protocol. The 25-minute interval is presented as a conventional starting setting rather than an evidence-backed optimum, and inherited unsupported performance claims are removed from the effective build." }, { "slug": "active-listening-exercises", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a curated correction-based listening protocol. Unsupported percentages, invented pilot/adherence numbers, and unnecessary timing prescriptions from the inherited draft are removed from the effective build." }, { "slug": "brainwriting-group-idea-generation", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a curated group ideation protocol. Unsupported idea-yield percentages, invented internal observations, and rigid timing/count prescriptions from the inherited draft are removed from the effective build." }, { "slug": "start-with-a-hypothesis", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a curated hypothesis-test-update protocol. Unsupported operational percentages, arbitrary evidence thresholds, and invented resolution-time stories from the inherited draft are removed from the effective build." }, { "slug": "circles-of-control-planner", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a curated action-allocation protocol. Unsupported stress measurements, supplement advice, arbitrary timing rules, and invented internal observations are removed." }, { "slug": "10-minute-morning-stretch-routine", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced gentle-flexibility protocol. Morning timing and ten minutes are presented as optional practical settings rather than medical prescriptions; safety boundaries and gradual progression are aligned with current NHS exercise guidance." }, { "slug": "10-minute-stress-walk", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced walking protocol grounded in current WHO and NHS guidance. Ten minutes is treated as a convenient boundary rather than a therapeutic dose; inherited stress-reduction percentages, physiological claims, productivity claims and adherence estimates are removed." }, { "slug": "safety-statements-exposure-anxiety", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced graded-facing-fears protocol grounded in NHS self-help and NICE CBT guidance. Reassurance statements and safety rituals are no longer prescribed as the core mechanism; inherited effect sizes, adherence claims, fixed breathing ratios and arbitrary progression rules are removed." }, { "slug": "guided-pmr-muscle-relaxation", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced progressive muscle relaxation protocol grounded in NHS clinical relaxation guidance. Unsupported symptom-reduction percentages, force targets, rigid 35-second timing and treatment-like expectations are removed; comfort and non-straining are the safety boundary." }, { "slug": "talk-about-fears-coach", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced support-seeking protocol grounded in current NHS guidance on talking about mental health, fear and phobias. Unsupported relief percentages, social-risk estimates, required word counts, time-boxing and pseudo-clinical outcome expectations are removed." }, { "slug": "3-minute-sensory-mindfulness-act", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced present-moment sensory mindfulness protocol grounded in current NHS guidance. Fixed three-to-five-minute dosing, weekly targets, invented adherence observations and treatment-like expectations are removed." }, { "slug": "4-minute-hiit-tabata-workout", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced high-intensity interval protocol grounded in NHS physical-activity guidance, WHO guidance and the original Tabata study. Unsupported heart-rate targets, calorie estimates, injury-risk claims and arbitrary progression rules are removed, and the 20/10 format is presented as one specific interval format rather than a universal prescription." }, { "slug": "4-minute-tabata-hiit-timer", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced interval-timer protocol grounded in NHS physical-activity guidance, WHO guidance and the original Tabata study. Unsupported heart-rate and rep targets, calorie estimates, maximal-effort instructions and progression schedules are removed, and the 20/10 x 8 timer is described as a specific format rather than a universal workout prescription." }, { "slug": "5-minute-meditation-habit-tracker", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced short breath-meditation protocol grounded in current NHS mindfulness and meditation guidance. Invented adherence results, pulse-change claims, fixed twice-daily dosing and prescriptive breathing ratios are removed, and the page explicitly acknowledges that mindfulness is not helpful for everyone." }, { "slug": "2-minute-desk-tidy-timer", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a short desk-reset protocol. Invented adherence, productivity, clutter-reduction and internal-pilot claims are removed; two minutes is treated as a convenient boundary rather than an evidence-backed optimum." }, { "slug": "3-3-3-workday-planner", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a flexible three-block planning template. Invented productivity results, fixed task counts, arbitrary ratios and internal-pilot claims are removed; three blocks and up to three outcomes are presented as optional structure." }, { "slug": "5-whys-goal-clarity", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a reflection protocol that treats repeated why questions as a prompt rather than a method for proving one root cause. Unsupported research claims, fabricated examples presented as observations and arbitrary scoring rules are removed." }, { "slug": "5w1h-communication-checklist", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a concise operational-clarity checklist. Fabricated meeting metrics, internal-trial claims, arbitrary timing rules and unnecessary numerical examples are removed." }, { "slug": "30-minute-deadline-sprints", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a low-risk first-pass timebox. Fabricated completion rates, internal-pilot results, unsupported creativity claims and rigid timing rules are removed; scope reduction is preferred over rushing important quality checks." }, { "slug": "90-30-focus-rest-schedule", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a flexible focus-and-break protocol. Unsupported ultradian claims, fabricated productivity observations, health-style hydration/caffeine advice and fixed 90/30 rules are removed." }, { "slug": "ab-test-learning-loop", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a compare-and-learn protocol that distinguishes informal tests from proper randomized A/B experiments. Unsupported conversion ranges, false-positive claims and arbitrary sample-size rules are removed." }, { "slug": "10-minute-language-microsprints", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a short language-practice protocol. Invented adherence data, unsupported recall and retention percentages, arbitrary targets and generic habit claims are removed; ten minutes is treated as a convenient starting container." }, { "slug": "20-20-20-eye-break-reminder", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced 20-20-20 screen-break protocol aligned with current National Eye Institute and American Optometric Association guidance. Unsupported symptom-reduction targets, blink-rate arithmetic, treatment suggestions and invented internal observations are removed." }, { "slug": "woop-goal-planner", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced WOOP/MCII protocol grounded in a 2021 meta-analysis and a 2026 randomized trial. Unsupported goal-attainment percentages, pseudo-precise timing, physiological claims, invented observations and rigid reminder rules are removed; the public claim is narrower than the strongest wording in either source." }, { "slug": "avoid-list-interference-memory-retention", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali Evidence Reviewer", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced quiet wakeful-rest protocol grounded in the 2026 Parra, Zhang & Radvansky meta-analysis. Arbitrary three-second pauses, fixed review counts, app-tracking instructions, generic habit claims and a universal ten-minute interpretation are removed; the protocol is limited to a low-interference post-learning experiment for declarative memory." }, { "slug": "active-recall-test-yourself", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "reviewed_by": "Brali Evidence Reviewer", "note": "Public content is replaced by a sourced retrieval-practice protocol grounded in the 2021 applied classroom systematic review and narrowed by two 2026 studies. Unsupported percentage gains, arbitrary thirty-minute sessions, generic neuroscience language and broad transfer claims are removed. The reviewed page distinguishes retention from later learning and from actual application of rules or skills." }, { "slug": "ad-astra-per-aspera-motivation-tracker", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained unsupported internal outcomes, percentages, mechanisms and rigid practice targets. The effective public record is rewritten as a low-risk phrase-to-action prompt without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "analogy-studio", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited NLP-branded article contained unsupported laboratory, comprehension and recall claims. The effective public record is rewritten as a neutral analogy-mapping and listener-paraphrase practice without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "ask-better-interview-questions", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited interview guide contained unsupported multipliers, sample claims and fabricated observations. The effective public record is rewritten as a consent-based, sequential information interview without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "ask-for-feedback-tracker", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited feedback article contained unsupported internal trials, cohort outcomes, response-rate claims and arbitrary quotas. The effective public record is rewritten as a bounded feedback request and decision protocol without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "avoid-anthropocentric-bias", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained unsupported survey ranges, volunteer outcomes, immediate-effect claims and rigid observation targets. The effective public record is rewritten as a low-risk observation-versus-interpretation check without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "avoid-contrast-effect", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained fabricated trials, laboratory ranges, hiring outcomes and savings claims. The effective public record is rewritten as an independent-assessment protocol without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "avoid-gamblers-fallacy-trust-the-odds", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained fabricated tests, financial action rules, arbitrary confidence and sample thresholds, and adherence claims. The effective public record is rewritten as a dependence-and-stop-rule check without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "avoid-selection-bias-in-analysis", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained unsupported mistake reduction, conversion examples, sample prescriptions and statistical precision. The effective public record is rewritten as an inclusion-rule and conclusion-scope check without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "backfire-effect-coach", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained fabricated trials, physiological explanations, effect ranges and self-reported cohort outcomes. The effective public record is rewritten as a bounded disagreement-and-claim-check protocol without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "belief-update-coach", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained numeric confidence prescriptions, sample-size rules, fabricated observations and arbitrary update ranges. The effective public record is rewritten as a bounded belief-review record without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "biomimicry-creative-problem-solving", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained fabricated performance outcomes, internal hit rates and unsupported biological explanations. The effective public record is rewritten as a function-to-principle design exercise without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "bold-brainstorm-kickoff", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali claim cleanup agent", "note": "The inherited article contained fabricated session outcomes, multipliers, percentage claims and pseudo-precise timing rules. The effective public record is rewritten as a provocation-to-feasible-idea exercise without an evidence claim." }, { "slug": "ideal-sleep-hours-finder", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-19", "reviewed_by": "Brali Evidence Reviewer", "note": "Public content is replaced by a conservative sleep-opportunity protocol grounded in a systematic review/meta-analysis of behavioral sleep-extension interventions and the AASM/SRS adult sleep-duration consensus. The inherited 21-day optimization experiment, fixed wake-time tolerances, personal optimum claims, caffeine/light prescriptions, invented thresholds, and pseudo-statistical dose-response language are removed." }, { "slug": "relationship-repair-coach", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-19", "reviewed_by": "Brali Evidence Reviewer", "note": "Public content is replaced by a source-bounded repair-attempt protocol grounded in experimental and meta-analytic apology/forgiveness research. The protocol does not require forgiveness, promise restored trust, prescribe arbitrary cooling-off windows, or treat apology as appropriate for abuse, coercion, or unsafe situations." }, { "slug": "refocus-present-stop-mind-wandering", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Reviewed against 2016 and 2026 systematic-review literature on Attention Training Technique plus a 2021 randomized experimental study reporting no ATT advantage over control on worry outcomes in probable GAD. Public content is limited to the directly described attention operations: external selection, deliberate switching, and broadening/divided attention. It makes no treatment or symptom-reduction promise." }, { "slug": "dbt-distress-tolerance-coach", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Reviewed against Dorset HealthCare NHS descriptions of DBT skills and the Valentine et al. systematic review of DBT skills training used without other DBT modalities. Public content is narrowed to a low-risk observe-pause-reassess exercise, removes cold-exposure/physiological instructions, and explicitly states that evidence does not make it equivalent to full DBT or crisis treatment." }, { "slug": "abdominal-breathing-stress-relief", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Reviewed against current NCCIH relaxation guidance. Public copy is limited to comfortable diaphragmatic breathing as a general relaxation exercise, removes fixed-rate and treatment claims, and explicitly says not to replace conventional care." }, { "slug": "cbt-action-mood-tracker", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Reviewed against NHS CBT and thought-record guidance. Public copy is an educational observation worksheet about situation, action and before/after experience; it is not presented as formal CBT, diagnosis, treatment, or proof of causality." }, { "slug": "cardio-health-daily-habits", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Reviewed against American Heart Association physical-activity guidance. Public copy is narrowed to planning movement toward the adult weekly activity baseline, with explicit adaptation to ability and professional medical advice." }, { "slug": "daily-gratitude-journal-three-things", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Reviewed against recent gratitude meta-analysis and systematic-review evidence. Public copy preserves the small/variable-effect boundary, removes fixed dosage and guaranteed mood claims, and says not to force gratitude or substitute it for mental-health care." }, { "slug": "spaced-recall-coach", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "reviewed_by": "Brali Evidence Reviewer", "note": "The effective public protocol was fully rewritten to match the reviewed distributed-practice boundary: separated study sessions for verbal material, spacing chosen in relation to the intended retention period, explicit uncertainty about exact intervals, and no claim of transfer beyond verbal recall." }, { "slug": "ask-a-peer-to-proofread", "status": "reviewed", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-21", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Reviewed against Scherer, Graham, and Busse (2024), a meta-analysis of feedback in secondary-school and university L1, L2, and foreign-language writing. Public guidance is limited to matching the requested feedback level to the intended revision outcome and explicitly excludes universal claims about feedback source, sequence, amount, or transfer to professional and creative writing." }, { "slug": "30-min-eye-break-tracker", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a low-risk screen-break checkpoint. Fixed timing, medical benefit claims, productivity claims and inherited evidence-like language are removed; the protocol is framed as a work-quality pause, not treatment." }, { "slug": "478-breathing-technique-guide", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a conservative unforced breathing pause. The inherited 4-7-8 prescription, treatment-like expectations and research-sounding claims are removed; users are told to stop if the exercise feels uncomfortable or causes light-headedness." }, { "slug": "create-win-win-outcomes", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by an interest-and-trade option map. It does not promise mutual gain or imply that every conflict has a win-win solution; a clear no-deal or boundary remains valid." }, { "slug": "achieve-multiple-goals-at-once", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a compatible-goals planning protocol. Unsupported multi-goal performance claims are removed and the user is instructed to separate goals when combining them weakens quality, attention, privacy or safety." }, { "slug": "leave-an-app-review", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a neutral observation-impact-suggestion feedback protocol. App-growth, engagement and outcome claims from inherited copy are not retained." }, { "slug": "automatic-paycheck-to-savings", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by general financial-hygiene guidance for a small reversible savings automation. It explicitly preserves essential obligations and avoids individualized financial advice, savings-rate prescriptions and unsupported outcome claims." }, { "slug": "challenge-generalizations-counterexamples", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a generic counterexample logic check. The legacy NLP collection is retained only as compatibility navigation; the protocol makes no claim that NLP is scientifically validated or necessary for the technique." }, { "slug": "ancestral-torch-resilience-tracker", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a short controllable-next-step reminder. Ancestry, resilience-performance and motivational outcome claims are removed; the phrase is kept only if it changes a concrete next action." }, { "slug": "decision-calibration-journal", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by ordinary decision-calibration journaling. The legacy Quantum collection is explicitly separated from the protocol and no personal-decision claim is inferred from quantum mechanics." }, { "slug": "ai-premortem-risk-planner", "status": "practical", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-20", "reviewed_by": "Brali editorial agent", "note": "Public content is replaced by a bounded AI-assisted premortem. Model output is treated only as candidate failure modes, sensitive information must not be shared, and important risks require verification against the real plan before mitigation." } ], "evidence_decisions": [ { "id": "activity-breaks-postprandial-metabolism-boundary-2026", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-30", "source_title": "The Acute Effects of Interrupting Prolonged Sitting With Regular Activity Breaks on Postprandial Glucose and Insulin in Adults: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis", "supported_claim": "For acute post-meal metabolism, replacing small portions of a prolonged sitting period with brief activity is better supported than remaining continuously seated. Across randomized crossover evidence, regular activity breaks reduced postprandial glucose and insulin responses, with walking producing the strongest overall mode estimates. Brali can therefore propose a bounded protocol to interrupt long sitting bouts with brief movement, especially walking when feasible, while treating the exact timing and dose as adaptable rather than universally fixed.", "limitations": [ "All included studies were acute laboratory randomized crossover trials lasting less than 24 hours, so the evidence does not establish long-term health effects or sustainability.", "Prolonged-sitting laboratory protocols, especially the longer ones, may not resemble habitual real-world sitting.", "Many pooled and subgroup estimates had substantial heterogeneity that remained after subgroup analysis.", "Most studies were rated fair or good rather than excellent; participant blinding was impossible and reporting of attrition and assessor blinding was inconsistent.", "The review was not prospectively registered in PROSPERO or another registry and no review protocol was prepared.", "The search was limited to peer-reviewed English-language studies, so relevant evidence may have been missed.", "Frequency and mode subgroup comparisons do not by themselves prove that the largest subgroup estimate is the optimal prescription for an individual." ] }, { "id": "ai-review-correction-friction-boundary-2026", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-29", "source_title": "Bias in the Loop: How Humans Evaluate AI-Generated Suggestions", "supported_claim": "When humans review AI-generated suggestions, the review interface itself can bias behavior. In this experiment, adding repair work to the act of rejecting an AI suggestion reduced correction activity and increased undercorrection. Brali can therefore justify a bounded workflow rule: make it cheap to flag or reject an AI output, and separate validation from repair when the repair burden would otherwise make acceptance the path of least resistance.", "limitations": [ "The experiment used crowdworkers rather than domain experts.", "The task was limited to ten greenhouse-gas reporting tables and one pre-annotation workflow.", "Several difficult items required domain knowledge that many annotators lacked.", "The randomized correction-burden manipulation changed correction behavior, but the regression analysis did not show a clear overall accuracy loss because overcorrections also decreased.", "AI attitudes predicted behavior observationally rather than through randomized manipulation.", "The study did not include a no-AI baseline and could not analyze item-order effects." ] }, { "id": "ai-structured-intake-human-judgment-boundary-2026", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-29", "source_title": "Voice AI in Firms: A Natural Field Experiment on Automated Job Interviews", "supported_claim": "A defensible way to divide some repetitive high-volume workflows is to automate structured information collection while keeping consequential evaluation with a human. In this field experiment, that division improved several downstream hiring outcomes without a measured decline in worker productivity. Transcript evidence is consistent with greater standardization and comparability as a mechanism, but does not prove that mechanism independently. Brali should treat this as a task-allocation pattern to test, not as evidence that AI should make final hiring or other high-stakes decisions.", "limitations": [ "The source is a working paper rather than a peer-reviewed journal article.", "The experiment was conducted with one recruitment-process outsourcing firm and entry-level customer-service hiring in the Philippines.", "Five percent of AI interviews ended because applicants were unwilling to continue with AI and seven percent experienced technical failure.", "The transcript-based mechanism analysis is associative even though interviewer assignment was randomized.", "The candidate-experience survey had a low response rate and may not represent all applicants.", "Applicants who were allowed to choose showed negative sorting into AI, limiting interpretation of the choice condition.", "Employment selection has legal, fairness, accessibility, and accountability requirements that this study does not resolve." ] }, { "id": "apology-repair-2021", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-19", "source_title": "Experimental evidence that apologies promote forgiveness by communicating relationship value", "supported_claim": "In the controlled experiments, apologies promoted forgiveness and operated through a causal pathway shared with perceived relationship value. This supports apology as one potentially useful repair signal after a workable interpersonal transgression.", "limitations": [ "Controlled experimental transgression paradigms do not capture every feature of real-world repeated or high-stakes conflict.", "Forgiveness is only one outcome and is not equivalent to trust, reconciliation, safety, or durable behavior change.", "The effect of apology depends on context, relationship value and the nature of the transgression.", "The study does not validate the specific wording or step sequence used in Brali's public repair protocol." ] }, { "id": "chatbot-difficult-conversation-rehearsal-2026", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-31", "source_title": "Harnessing Artificial Intelligence to Facilitate Difficult Conversations", "supported_claim": "For adults already considering an ordinary difficult conversation, a brief chatbot preparation session modestly increased the probability that they reported actually initiating it over the following week: 65% in the preparation condition versus 59% in control. Brali can therefore test a bounded rehearsal protocol whose goal is to reduce the initiation barrier: clarify the goal, draft an opening, role-play a likely response and prepare one or two contingency moves, then return to the real human conversation.", "limitations": [ "The primary real-world outcome was participant self-report rather than independently observed conversation behavior.", "The absolute difference in conversation initiation was modest: six percentage points.", "The experimental and control chatbot interactions differed in duration, engagement and prompting, so the study does not isolate which preparation component caused the effect.", "The sample was limited to US and Canadian Prolific participants, restricting cultural generalizability.", "Among participants who did have the difficult conversation, the study found no significant differences in satisfaction, perceived quality, difficulty or thoroughness.", "The study followed behavior for roughly one week and does not establish repeated-use or long-term effects.", "Preparing the conversation increased negative affect immediately after the exercise, and repeated reliance on a chatbot was not studied.", "Safety-sensitive, coercive, legal and high-power-imbalance conversations were not established as appropriate use cases." ] }, { "id": "communication-coaching-reflective-statements-boundary-2023", "decision": "challenge-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "source_title": "Effect of a Coaching Intervention to Improve Cardiologist Communication: A Randomized Clinical Trial", "supported_claim": "A multicomponent individual coaching program changed some observed cardiologist communication behaviors, particularly empathic responses and eliciting patient questions. Reflective statements and open-ended questions were explicit trained components, but the intervention did not significantly increase either behavior relative to control. This source is therefore a boundary against claiming that training the Brali sequence by itself has demonstrated communication or patient-outcome effects.", "limitations": [ "Five communication skills were trained together, so any observed effect cannot be attributed to paraphrasing or open questions independently.", "There was no significant intervention-versus-control difference in reflective statements or open-ended questions.", "Patient-perceived communication and trust effects could not be assessed because scores had substantial ceiling effects.", "The sample included mostly White male cardiologists in an academic setting and many had prior communication training, limiting generalizability.", "Pre- and post-intervention patient samples were different rather than repeated measures on the same patients.", "The intervention required repeated one-to-one coaching and feedback, so it does not test a self-guided protocol used once.", "Clinical and longer-term outcomes were not established." ] }, { "id": "couple-conflict-channel-boundary-2026", "decision": "challenge-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-26", "source_title": "A systematic review of technology-mediated conflict management in couples", "supported_claim": "For romantic-couple conflict, current evidence does not justify a universal channel rule. Across the 15 reviewed studies, technology-mediated and face-to-face conflict often produced similar outcomes, with mixed results and preliminary evidence that person and relationship characteristics may moderate effects. A Brali voice-switch protocol therefore needs an explicit close-relationship boundary instead of extending the broader spoken-disagreement finding as a universal rule.", "limitations": [ "Only 15 quantitative studies met inclusion criteria.", "Seven of the 15 studies were grey literature.", "Several experimental studies had very small samples, including samples around two dozen participants.", "The studies were heterogeneous in design, communication channel and outcome measures.", "Convenience samples tended to be relationally satisfied and low-conflict.", "Laboratory technology-mediated interactions may be more synchronous and controlled than everyday messaging.", "The evidence spans technologies and norms from 2007 to 2024, limiting temporal uniformity." ] }, { "id": "distributed-practice-verbal-recall-boundary-2006", "decision": "support-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "source_title": "Distributed practice in verbal recall tasks: A review and quantitative synthesis", "supported_claim": "For verbal material measured by later recall, separating repeated study episodes by a meaningful interval generally supports better retention than concentrating the same material into massed study. The spacing associated with the best later recall tended to increase as the intended retention interval increased. For material that must be retained over months or years, the reviewed evidence supports distributing study across days or longer rather than completing all review in one sitting or one day. These findings justify the rewritten Brali action only within a verbal-recall boundary and without one universal schedule.", "limitations": [ "The synthesis was restricted to verbal memory tasks measured by recall and deliberately excluded recognition, frequency judgments and the heterogeneous skill-learning literature.", "The evidence base was dominated by young adults; the authors reported very little middle-aged and older-adult evidence and insufficient long-term child data for confident generalization.", "Many studies did not report the variance data needed for effect-size calculation, so several analyses relied on accuracy differences and included fewer effect-size estimates.", "Published null findings may be underrepresented because of the file-drawer problem.", "Study materials, presentation schedules, retention intervals and experimental procedures varied substantially.", "Some historical studies confounded longer spacing with more relearning trials; the review examined this problem but could not remove every design limitation from the literature.", "Binning inter-study and retention intervals supported broad patterns but reduced the ability to recommend exact intervals.", "The useful interval depends jointly on spacing and the later retention target, and the authors stated that exact long-term optimization could not be specified with certainty.", "Evidence comparing expanding and fixed schedules was sparse and inconsistent, with large between-study variability.", "The synthesis addresses later recall, not broader comprehension, transfer, motivation, study adherence or real-world performance.", "The review was published in 2006 and should be rechecked against newer syntheses before adding more precise scheduling claims." ] }, { "id": "empathic-paraphrasing-immediate-emotion-boundary-2012", "decision": "support-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "source_title": "Effects of Empathic Paraphrasing – Extrinsic Emotion Regulation in Social Conflict", "supported_claim": "In this small nonclinical social-conflict experiment, a trained interviewer used a behavior closely matching Brali's core correction loop: summarize the speaker's facts, feelings and priorities, then ask whether the understanding is accurate. Participants reported less negative immediate emotion after paraphrasing than after silent note-taking. This supports retaining paraphrase plus explicit correction as a bounded practice behavior, with the studied outcome and setting stated precisely.", "limitations": [ "Only twenty participants contributed self-report data, making results vulnerable to individual variation and unsuitable for broad population estimates.", "One female interviewer with approximately 190 hours of conflict-resolution training delivered every paraphrase, so listener skill and delivery cannot be separated from the technique.", "The control condition was silent note-taking rather than another spoken response; differences may partly reflect receiving a verbal response rather than paraphrasing specifically.", "Participants may have interpreted note-taking as judgment despite the study explanation, potentially biasing the comparison.", "Only immediate reactions were measured; the authors explicitly described longer-term emotion resolution as speculative.", "Conflicts involving physical or psychological violence were excluded, so the result must not be applied as ordinary advice in unsafe or abusive situations.", "The study assessed emotional valence and arousal, not whether the listener understood more accurately or whether the conflict outcome improved." ] }, { "id": "hourly-microexercise-workplace-watch-2026", "decision": "watch", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-30", "source_title": "Micro-exercise breaks every hour: a feasible strategy to improve metabolic health in sedentary office workers", "supported_claim": "This trial makes the general movement-break idea more plausible in an ordinary workplace over twelve weeks: a simple hourly bodyweight routine was feasible for many participants, increased light activity, reduced sedentary time and improved several measured metabolic markers. It is useful ecological support for continuing to develop a sitting-interruption protocol, but it should remain watch-level evidence for the exact hourly three-minute dose until stronger preregistered and replicated field evidence is available.", "limitations": [ "The trial was not registered in a clinical-trial registry, which weakens confidence that outcomes and analyses were fixed prospectively.", "It was a single-city study across three workplaces with only 86 randomized participants and 79 completing follow-up.", "The sample was predominantly overweight, limiting generalizability to metabolically different populations.", "Participants and intervention facilitators could not be blinded and there was no attention-control condition.", "Adherence was monitored primarily by self-report, although workplace observations and accelerometry provided partial objective corroboration.", "Dietary intake was not measured, leaving a potential unmeasured contributor to metabolic change.", "Twelve weeks is too short to establish durable adherence or clinical endpoints such as diabetes incidence.", "The sample was not powered to establish reliable subgroup effects." ] }, { "id": "human-first-ai-collaboration-boundary-2026", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-26", "source_title": "Relying on AI at work reduces self-efficacy, ownership, and meaning while active collaboration mitigates the effects", "supported_claim": "When preserving a worker's sense of authorship, competence and connection to the task matters, a meaningful human first pass before AI refinement is a reasonable workflow to test. In the randomized writing task, direct copy-and-paste use produced lower psychological ownership and meaningfulness than both no-AI and human-first collaboration, while the human-first condition was comparable to no-AI on those outcomes.", "limitations": [ "The causal experiment used short occupation-specific writing tasks rather than the full range of knowledge work.", "The passive condition was intentionally extreme: participants used AI-generated content directly without modification.", "The active condition tested one workflow only: human draft first, then AI refinement.", "The study did not instrument the external AI tool deeply enough to analyze prompt content and detailed interaction sequences.", "Baseline AI skill and confidence were not comprehensively modeled.", "The broader follow-up survey was correlational and cannot establish direction of causality." ] }, { "id": "microbreak-wellbeing-performance-boundary-2022", "decision": "support-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "source_title": "Give me a break! A systematic review and meta-analysis on the efficacy of micro-breaks for increasing well-being and performance", "supported_claim": "Across the included studies, micro-breaks of up to 10 minutes were associated on average with small improvements in vigor and reduced fatigue. The pooled overall performance effect was not statistically significant, and performance effects varied by task demands and break duration. This supports retaining a short, adjustable break as a bounded recovery practice without presenting it as a reliable performance booster.", "limitations": [ "The review combined heterogeneous break activities, durations, tasks and settings rather than testing a single Pomodoro-style intervention.", "Only four of twenty-two included study samples were rated low risk of bias across the assessed domains.", "The overall pooled performance effect was not statistically significant and performance heterogeneity was substantial.", "Performance effects differed by task type; the authors reported significant effects only for less cognitively demanding tasks in subgroup analyses.", "Longer break duration was associated with better performance in meta-regression, which argues against treating one short duration as universally optimal.", "Most outcomes were immediate post-break measures; the review does not establish long-term productivity or health effects.", "The source defines micro-breaks as no more than ten minutes and does not validate the work interval preceding the break." ] }, { "id": "mobile-internet-block-attention-boundary-2025", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-27", "source_title": "Blocking mobile internet on smartphones improves sustained attention, mental health, and subjective well-being", "supported_claim": "For adults who actively want to reduce constant phone connectivity, temporarily removing mobile-internet access from the phone is a defensible attention experiment. In this randomized trial, the intervention produced a small intention-to-treat improvement in objectively measured sustained attention while calls, texts and non-phone internet remained available. Brali can therefore test a bounded phone-offline window or period when the user's goal is fewer digital temptations and more sustained attention.", "limitations": [ "Only 119 of 467 participants who agreed to the intervention met the preregistered compliance threshold, so the full two-week block was difficult to sustain.", "The sample was strongly motivated to reduce smartphone use, which limits generalizability to people who do not share that goal.", "Only 67 percent completed all three surveys; completers had somewhat better baseline mental health and sustained attention than non-completers.", "The delayed-intervention design did not provide an active placebo control, so expectancy and demand effects may have affected self-report outcomes.", "The sustained-attention task provides a cognitive outcome, not direct evidence of improved work, study, safety or life performance.", "The study tested a broad mobile-internet block, not shorter work windows, app-specific limits, notification batching or other lower-friction variants." ] }, { "id": "movement-breaks-cognition-2026", "decision": "watch", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "source_title": "Acute cognitive effects of interruptions to prolonged sitting with brief standing or physical activity breaks: a systematic review and three-level meta-analysis", "supported_claim": "Across the included trials, interruptions to prolonged sitting were associated with small acute improvements in executive function and memory on average. Evidence for global cognition, information processing, and attention was insufficient or inconsistent, and certainty was low for most outcomes.", "limitations": [ "Only 21 randomized crossover trials with 433 participants were included.", "GRADE certainty was low for executive function, memory, information processing, and attention and very low for global cognition.", "No clear improvement was found for global cognition, information processing, or attention.", "Moderator and protocol-parameter findings were exploratory and the authors explicitly state they are insufficient for definitive prescriptive recommendations.", "The outcomes were acute cognitive effects, so the source does not establish long-term cognitive benefit from a break routine." ] }, { "id": "procrastination-treatment-exact-protocol-boundary-2018", "decision": "challenge-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "source_title": "Targeting Procrastination Using Psychological Treatments: A Systematic Review and Meta-Analysis", "supported_claim": "Across the reviewed randomized comparisons, psychological treatments targeting procrastination had a small average post-treatment benefit on self-reported procrastination relative to inactive controls, but effects varied substantially between studies and the evidence base had important quality limitations. This supports treating task initiation as a legitimate intervention target, not claiming that one brief Brali routine or one component has been validated.", "limitations": [ "The pooled overall effect was small and showed significant between-study heterogeneity, so the average should not be treated as one stable effect across interventions or populations.", "The review identified some risk of bias in every included study; blinding-related domains were frequently rated high risk.", "Primary procrastination measures varied, and several assessed academic rather than general procrastination.", "The included studies used different interventions, delivery formats, durations and participant populations, preventing component-level attribution.", "The review analyzed post-treatment outcomes because too few studies reported follow-up data, limiting conclusions about durability.", "Secondary outcomes were too heterogeneous to aggregate.", "The stronger cognitive-behavioral subgroup estimate depended on excluding one small outlying study and represented only three of the four cognitive-behavioral studies.", "The source did not test the exact five-minute interval, the exact Brali action sequence or the protocol's observable-review checkpoint." ] }, { "id": "retrieval-procedural-application-2026", "decision": "challenge-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "source_title": "Mixed effects of retrieval practice on the acquisition of procedural knowledge in verb spelling education", "supported_claim": "Adding retrieval practice to worked examples improved long-term retention of the spelling rules in this classroom study, but the combined group did not outperform worked examples alone on correct rule application after one week.", "limitations": [ "The sample was 105 fourth-grade pupils learning Dutch verb spelling in a small number of intact classes and schools.", "The comparison tested retrieval practice added to worked examples, not retrieval practice in isolation.", "The target was one form of procedural knowledge and the study does not establish identical boundaries in other domains or age groups.", "The result supports separating retention from application outcomes, not concluding that retrieval practice is ineffective for complex learning generally." ] }, { "id": "situational-digital-disconnection-procrastination-boundary-2026", "decision": "support-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-27", "source_title": "Digital disconnection as a self-regulatory strategy against procrastination", "supported_claim": "Situational digital disconnection is a plausible low-friction self-regulation tactic to include in Brali's phone-offline protocol design. Within individuals, moments with more deliberate disconnection were associated with slightly less procrastination, and channel-focused strategies at the device, app or feature level showed the most promising pattern. This source adds ecological support for targeting access to a temptation before it is opened, but it does not establish a causal effect.", "limitations": [ "The design was observational, so reverse causality and time-varying situational confounding remain possible.", "Digital disconnection and procrastination were both self-reported.", "Surveys asked participants to recall the previous two hours, creating possible recall delay and measurement error.", "The sample was limited to young adults and Android users recruited largely through German university-related channels.", "The lagged analyses and comparisons among disconnection levels were exploratory.", "The study did not measure downstream work performance, academic achievement or objective task completion." ] }, { "id": "sleep-opportunity-extension-2021", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-19", "source_title": "Behavioral interventions to extend sleep duration: A systematic review and meta-analysis", "supported_claim": "Behavioral interventions designed to extend sleep increased sleep duration on average compared with control or baseline. Direct interventions that specified a sleep schedule tended to have larger effects, but results were highly heterogeneous.", "limitations": [ "Statistical heterogeneity was very high across both two-arm and one-arm studies.", "Populations, intervention components, duration and measurement methods varied substantially.", "The primary outcome was sleep duration; the review does not establish a single personal optimum for daytime performance or health.", "The findings do not replace clinical assessment for persistent insomnia, excessive sleepiness, suspected sleep disorders, or other medical concerns." ] }, { "id": "sleep-variability-cognition-2026", "decision": "watch", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "source_title": "The association between sleep variability and cognitive function: A systematic review and meta analysis", "supported_claim": "Across the included literature, greater sleep variability was associated with poorer cognitive performance on average, with a small pooled correlation and age moderating the association.", "limitations": [ "The reviewed evidence is primarily association evidence and does not establish the direction of causality.", "Sleep variability and cognition were operationalized in different ways across studies.", "The pooled association was small (r=-0.12 in the authors' analysis).", "Age moderated the association, so a single population-wide claim would hide meaningful differences.", "The publisher abstract and bibliographic record were directly reviewed for this Brali decision; a causal behavior-change protocol is deliberately not proposed from this source alone." ] }, { "id": "spoken-vs-written-disagreement-boundary-2026", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-26", "source_title": "Spoken disagreement is more constructive than written disagreement", "supported_claim": "For manageable disagreement settings similar to those studied, moving a discussion from writing to speaking is a reasonable tactic to test when the primary goal is mutual understanding: spoken conversations tended to produce greater perceived understanding and lower perceived conflict than written conversations.", "limitations": [ "Overall conflict was relatively low.", "Participants were mostly American university students and often strangers.", "Topics were controversial opinions rather than typical workplace or close-relationship disputes.", "Some moderation analyses were underpowered.", "The research does not cover situations where written documentation, asynchronous reflection or distance is needed for safety or accountability." ] }, { "id": "structured-peer-feedback-provision-2025", "decision": "support-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-31", "source_title": "Enhancing the Peer-Feedback Process Through Instructional Support: A Meta-Analysis", "supported_claim": "In the reviewed educational literature, adding instructional support to peer feedback improved the peer-feedback process overall, and support aimed at the person providing feedback was associated with better feedback-provision quality. This supports Brali's existing educational writing protocol in making the review target explicit and giving the peer reviewer a small amount of structure instead of requesting vague general feedback.", "limitations": [ "Only 32 journal studies met the inclusion criteria, limiting fine-grained moderator analysis.", "Only three studies with 14 effect sizes examined feedback-reception support, making conclusions about that phase underpowered and unstable.", "The authors had to collapse specific supports such as rubrics, sentence starters and guiding questions into broader categories because each was represented by too few studies.", "Study heterogeneity was high, and publication-bias tests were mixed: Egger's test was significant whereas Begg's test was not and the funnel plot was relatively symmetrical.", "The meta-analysis concerns educational peer-feedback processes and should not be treated as direct evidence for all professional writing or workplace review contexts.", "Coarse outcome categories do not reveal which exact support mechanism is best for a specific writing task." ] }, { "id": "task-choice-response-latency-boundary-2026", "decision": "watch", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-31", "source_title": "Give Me a Choice! A Field Experiment on Task Choice Enabled by Wearables", "supported_claim": "In this specific automated manufacturing setting, giving workers task choice changed where time was spent rather than improving aggregate productivity: response time rose by about 80 seconds, accepted-task completion time fell by about 26 seconds, and machine productivity did not significantly change. This makes a hybrid choice-versus-delegation design worth further study: offer bounded choice where response latency is not critical, while preserving direct ownership for urgent tasks.", "limitations": [ "Only two plants from one company were studied, so plant-level random allocation still leaves only two clusters and limits causal generalization.", "The post-treatment period was only three weeks.", "The assignment system could not perfectly encode worker skills, so improved matching and motivational autonomy effects cannot be fully disentangled.", "The tasks were short troubleshooting responses to machine interruptions, where response latency is unusually important.", "Productivity was measured at the machine level rather than directly for individual tasks or workers.", "The treatment group started from relatively high productivity, which may have limited detectable gains.", "The satisfaction result came from an auxiliary single-item survey and was acknowledged by the authors as anecdotal.", "Findings around task choice remain mixed in the broader literature, according to the authors' own discussion." ] }, { "id": "testing-effect-direct-forward-2026", "decision": "challenge-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "source_title": "Research on the testing effect routinely conflates direct and forward testing effects: A meta-analysis of testing effects with free recall", "supported_claim": "Retrieval practice can improve memory, but the literature commonly labeled as the testing effect mixes at least two distinct effects. In this meta-analysis, 66% of included testing effects came from mixed studies and 34% from direct studies, with mixed studies producing larger effects.", "limitations": [ "The meta-analysis focuses on free-recall testing-effect studies rather than every form of retrieval practice or every educational outcome.", "Its main contribution is separation of direct and forward effects; it does not negate the broader evidence that retrieval practice can support retention.", "The reported mixture of study designs means older aggregate claims may need narrower interpretation rather than wholesale rejection." ] }, { "id": "testing-versus-restudy-retention-boundary-2014", "decision": "support-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-22", "source_title": "The effect of testing versus restudy on retention: a meta-analytic review of the testing effect", "supported_claim": "Across the included testing-versus-restudy literature, retrieval testing produced better later retention on average than equivalent-duration restudy. The pooled random-effects estimate was positive, but effects varied substantially across studies and testing conditions. This supports Brali's bounded recommendation to retrieve information from memory, check the answer, and use that loop when retention is the target.", "limitations": [ "Between-study heterogeneity in the primary analysis was very high, so the pooled mean does not describe one uniform effect across designs or contexts.", "The review deliberately restricted the quantitative synthesis to testing-versus-equivalent-restudy contrasts and does not represent every retrieval-practice paradigm.", "Testing benefits varied with methodological factors including initial test format, retention interval and feedback.", "Many contributing studies used controlled experimental learning tasks and college samples, which limits direct extrapolation to every real-world learning context.", "The review's main outcome is retention; it does not establish that remembered information can be applied correctly in a novel task or procedure.", "Theoretical findings did not provide one complete cohesive mechanism for all testing phenomena, so Brali should avoid mechanism decoration.", "A positive average effect does not imply that every individual effect was positive; the reviewed distribution included negative and null estimates." ] }, { "id": "wakeful-rest-complex-learning-challenge-2026", "decision": "challenge-existing", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-28", "source_title": "Wakeful rest and memory consolidation in an ecologically valid educational setting: no benefit over distractor tasks", "supported_claim": "The existing Brali wakeful-rest protocol must not promise better comprehension or long-term retention for complex educational reading. In this more ecologically valid randomized study, eight minutes of post-reading wakeful rest did not produce a consistent advantage over social media, math or similar-text reading on immediate or one-week factual and conceptual tests. Keep the protocol narrow: it is an optional declarative-memory tactic, not a general learning upgrade.", "limitations": [ "The study used one expository learning task in a university-student population.", "The wakeful-rest condition used an autogenic-training implementation and therefore does not represent every possible quiet-rest procedure.", "Only one eight-minute post-learning duration was tested.", "The delayed test used different but conceptually aligned questions rather than identical items from the immediate test.", "A single null study cannot establish absence of a wakeful-rest effect across all complex learning tasks or populations." ] }, { "id": "wakeful-rest-memory-2026", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-18", "source_title": "Should we all just take 10? A meta-analysis of wakeful rest", "supported_claim": "A short period of quiet, minimally interfering wakeful rest after learning can reduce forgetting on average. The pooled effect is substantially smaller and less consistent in healthy young to middle-aged adults than in older adults or patient samples.", "limitations": [ "There was moderate to large between-study heterogeneity overall.", "The overall prediction interval included negative effects, so future studies are not guaranteed to find a benefit.", "Healthy young to middle-aged adults had the smallest pooled effect (g=0.20 in the authors' group analysis).", "Patient studies were small and showed funnel-plot asymmetry consistent with possible publication bias.", "Learning materials, interference tasks, test procedures, age, and clinical status varied across studies.", "The meta-analysis concerns declarative memory and does not justify broad claims about skill acquisition, creativity, focus, or general intelligence." ] }, { "id": "walking-divergent-thinking-boundary-2026", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-26", "source_title": "The impact of walking on creative thinking: A systematic review and meta-analysis", "supported_claim": "Walking is a defensible context change for the idea-generation phase of creative work. The meta-analysis found moderate-certainty evidence of a large positive effect on divergent thinking, including in randomized-only sensitivity analysis. The same evidence does not establish a benefit for convergent evaluation or selection.", "limitations": [ "Substantial heterogeneity remained unexplained.", "Most participants were post-secondary students.", "Divergent-thinking measures dominated the literature.", "Evidence for convergent thinking was rated very low certainty and was based on few studies.", "Several positive studies originated from a limited set of research groups and settings.", "The review does not identify an optimal duration or intensity." ] }, { "id": "writing-feedback-level-match-2024", "decision": "propose-protocol", "reviewed_at": "2026-08-21", "source_title": "How effective is feedback for L1, L2, and FL learners’ writing? A meta-analysis", "supported_claim": "In the reviewed secondary-school and university writing literature, feedback effects differed by the level of writing outcome: surface-level feedback improved surface-level outcomes, deep-level feedback improved deep-level outcomes, and combined surface-and-deep feedback could improve both. This supports matching a feedback request to the revision outcome rather than treating all feedback as interchangeable.", "limitations": [ "The evidence concerns educational writing by secondary-school and university or college learners rather than all writing contexts.", "Effects varied across L1, L2, and foreign-language learners, so a single population-wide estimate can conceal important differences.", "The included papers used experimental or quasi-experimental designs but varied in feedback treatment, source, duration, outcome measurement, and instructional context.", "Only about one-third of the treatment/control comparisons examined maintenance effects, limiting conclusions about durability.", "Many studies did not report enough learner-level variables, and evidence was comparatively scarce for some learner groups and treatment-outcome combinations.", "Meta-analytic categories for surface, deep, combined, and feedback source are useful abstractions but do not establish one universally optimal revision workflow." ] } ], "limitations": [ "This is a curation and coverage report for Brali, not a meta-analysis of scientific effects.", "Month-to-date review activity is based on dated Brali review records. It does not measure search demand, user outcomes, or research-field popularity.", "A true month-over-month trend requires comparable stored snapshots; the current report establishes the baseline for future comparisons." ], "canonical_url": "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/trends/evidence/2026-08/", "research_gap_pipeline": { "baseline_gaps": 24, "open_gaps": 22, "resolved_gaps": 2, "stage_counts": { "discovery-ready": 7, "reviewed": 1, "ready-for-resolution": 14, "resolved": 2 }, "resolved_this_period": [ { "topic_id": "memory", "topic_title": "Memory", "resolved_at": "2026-08-20", "evidence_decision_ids": [ "wakeful-rest-memory-2026", "testing-effect-direct-forward-2026", "retrieval-procedural-application-2026" ], "protocol_slugs": [ "avoid-list-interference-memory-retention", "active-recall-test-yourself" ] }, { "topic_id": "revision-feedback", "topic_title": "Revision & Feedback", "resolved_at": "2026-08-21", "evidence_decision_ids": [ "writing-feedback-level-match-2024" ], "protocol_slugs": [ "ask-a-peer-to-proofread" ] } ], "agenda_url": "https://brali-lifeos.github.io/research/gaps/" } }