Costs and benefits of statistical significance tests

Abstract

Chow's book provides a thorough analysis of the confusing array of issues surrounding conventional tests of statistical significance. This book should be required reading for behavioral and social scientists. Chow concludes that the null-hypothesis significance-testing procedure (NHSTP) plays a limited, but necessary, role in the experimental sciences. Another possibility is that – owing in part to its metaphorical underpinnings and convoluted logic – the NHSTP is declining in importance in those few sciences in which it ever played a role.