creators_name: Chow, Siu L.
type: journalp
datestamp: 1999-08-07
lastmod: 2011-03-11 08:54:18
metadata_visibility: show
title: Significance Test or Effect Size?
ispublished: pub
subjects: cog-psy
subjects: phil-sci
full_text_status: public
keywords: statistical significance, effect size, statistical power, meta-analysis, modus tollens, the sample-size problem, theeffect-size problem, the substantive-significance problem, theory corroboration
abstract: I describe and question the argument that in psychological research, the significance test should be replaced (or, at least, supplemented) by a more informative index (viz., effect size or statistical power) in the case of theory-corroboration experimentation because it has been made on the basis of some debatable assumptions about the rationale of scientific investigation. The rationale of theory-corroboration experimentation requires nothing more than a binary decision about the relation between two variables. This binary decision supplies the minor premise for the syllogism implicated when a theory is being tested. Some metatheoretical considerations reveal that the magnitude of the effect-size estimate is not a satisfactory alternative to the significance test.
date: 1988
date_type: published
publication: Psychological Bulletin
volume: 103
number: 1
pagerange: 105-110
refereed: TRUE
citation:   Chow, Siu L.  (1988) Significance Test or Effect Size?  [Journal (Paginated)]     
document_url: http://cogprints.org/824/1/SIGTEST.htm