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The null-hypothesis significance-test procedure is still warranted

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  01 April 1998

Siu L. Chow
Siu L. Chow
Affiliation:
Department of Psychology, University of Regina, Regina, Saskatchewan, Canada S4S 0A2 chowsl/@leroy.cc.uregina.ca
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Abstract

Entertaining diverse assumptions about empirical research, commentators give a wide range of verdicts on the NHSTP defence in Statistical significance. The null-hypothesis significance-test procedure (NHSTP) is defended in a framework in which deductive and inductive rules are deployed in theory corroboration in the spirit of Popper's Conjectures and refutations (1968b). The defensible hypothetico-deductive structure of the framework is used to make explicit the distinctions between (1) substantive and statistical hypotheses, (2) statistical alternative and conceptual alternative hypotheses, and (3) making statistical decisions and drawing theoretical conclusions. These distinctions make it easier to show that (1) H0 can be true, (2) the effect size is irrelevant to theory corroboration, and (3) “strong” hypotheses make no difference to NHSTP. Reservations about statistical power, meta-analysis, and the Bayesian approach are still warranted.

Type
Author's Response
Information
Behavioral and Brain Sciences , Volume 21 , Issue 2 , April 1998 , pp. 228 - 235
Copyright
© 1998 Cambridge University Press

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