scholarly journals Null hypothesis significance testing: a short tutorial

F1000Research ◽  
2015 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Pernet

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) is the statistical method of choice in biological, biomedical and social sciences to investigate if an effect is likely. In this short tutorial, I first summarize the concepts behind the method while pointing to common interpretation errors. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals, and discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts, present statistical issues that researchers face using the NHST framework and propose reporting practices.

F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Pernet

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) remains the statistical method of choice used to provide evidence for an effect, in biological, biomedical and social sciences. In this short tutorial, I first summarize the concepts behind the method, distinguishing test of significance (Fisher) and test of acceptance (Newman-Pearson) and point to common interpretation errors regarding the p-value. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals and again point to common interpretation errors. Finally, I discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts to avoid interpretation errors and propose reporting practices.


F1000Research ◽  
2016 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Pernet

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) remains the statistical method of choice used to provide evidence for an effect, in biological, biomedical and social sciences. In this short tutorial, I first summarize the concepts behind the method, distinguishing test of significance (Fisher) and test of acceptance (Newman-Pearson) and point to common interpretation errors regarding the p-value. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals and again point to common interpretation errors. Finally, I discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts to avoid interpretation errors and propose reporting practices.


F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 621
Author(s):  
Cyril Pernet

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) remains the statistical method of choice used to provide evidence for an effect, in biological, biomedical and social sciences. In this short guide, I first summarize the concepts behind the method, distinguishing test of significance (Fisher) and test of acceptance (Newman-Pearson) and point to common interpretation errors regarding the p-value. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals and again point to common interpretation errors. Finally, I discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts to avoid interpretation errors and propose simple reporting practices.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril R Pernet

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing is the statistical method of choice in biological, biomedical and social sciences to investigate if an effect is likely. In this short tutorial, I first summarize the concepts behind the method while pointing to common interpretation errors. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals, effect size, and Bayesian factor, and discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts, present statistical issues that researchers face using the NHST framework and highlight good practices.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril R Pernet

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing is the statistical method of choice in biological, biomedical and social sciences to investigate if an effect is likely. In this short tutorial, I first summarize the concepts behind the method while pointing to common interpretation errors. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals, effect size, and Bayesian factor, and discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts, present statistical issues that researchers face using the NHST framework and highlight good practices.


2015 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril R Pernet

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing is the statistical method of choice in biological, biomedical and social sciences to investigate if an effect is likely. In this short tutorial, I first summarize the concepts behind the method while pointing to common interpretation errors. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals, effect size, and Bayesian factor, and discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts, present statistical issues that researchers face using the NHST framework and highlight good practices.


F1000Research ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 4 ◽  
pp. 621 ◽  
Author(s):  
Cyril Pernet

Although thoroughly criticized, null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) remains the statistical method of choice used to provide evidence for an effect, in biological, biomedical and social sciences. In this short guide, I first summarize the concepts behind the method, distinguishing test of significance (Fisher) and test of acceptance (Newman-Pearson) and point to common interpretation errors regarding the p-value. I then present the related concepts of confidence intervals and again point to common interpretation errors. Finally, I discuss what should be reported in which context. The goal is to clarify concepts to avoid interpretation errors and propose simple reporting practices.


Econometrics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 26 ◽  
Author(s):  
David Trafimow

There has been much debate about null hypothesis significance testing, p-values without null hypothesis significance testing, and confidence intervals. The first major section of the present article addresses some of the main reasons these procedures are problematic. The conclusion is that none of them are satisfactory. However, there is a new procedure, termed the a priori procedure (APP), that validly aids researchers in obtaining sample statistics that have acceptable probabilities of being close to their corresponding population parameters. The second major section provides a description and review of APP advances. Not only does the APP avoid the problems that plague other inferential statistical procedures, but it is easy to perform too. Although the APP can be performed in conjunction with other procedures, the present recommendation is that it be used alone.


2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tsz Keung Wong ◽  
Henk Kiers ◽  
Jorge Tendeiro

The aim of this study is to investigate whether there is a potential mismatch between the usability of a statistical tool and psychology researchers’ expectation of it. Bayesian statistics is often promoted as an ideal substitute for frequentists statistics since it coincides better with researchers’ expectations and needs. A particular incidence of this is the proposal of replacing Null Hypothesis Significance Testing (NHST) by Null Hypothesis Bayesian Testing (NHBT) using the Bayes factor. In this paper, it is studied to what extent the usability and expectations of NHBT match well. First, a study of the reporting practices in 73 psychological publications was carried out. It was found that eight Questionable Reporting and Interpreting Practices (QRIPs) occur more than once among the practitioners when doing NHBT. Specifically, our analysis provides insight into possible mismatches and their occurrence frequencies. A follow-up survey study has been conducted to assess such mismatches. The sample (N = 108) consisted of psychology researchers, experts in methodology (and/or statistics), and applied researchers in fields other than psychology. The data show that discrepancies exist among the participants. Interpreting the Bayes Factor as posterior odds and not acknowledging the notion of relative evidence in the Bayes Factor are arguably the most concerning ones. The results of the paper suggest that a shift of statistical paradigm cannot solve the problem of misinterpretation altogether if the users are not well acquainted with the tools.


2005 ◽  
Vol 35 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-20 ◽  
Author(s):  
G. K. Huysamen

Criticisms of traditional null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) became more pronounced during the 1960s and reached a climax during the past decade. Among others, NHST says nothing about the size of the population parameter of interest and its result is influenced by sample size. Estimation of confidence intervals around point estimates of the relevant parameters, model fitting and Bayesian statistics represent some major departures from conventional NHST. Testing non-nil null hypotheses, determining optimal sample size to uncover only substantively meaningful effect sizes and reporting effect-size estimates may be regarded as minor extensions of NHST. Although there seems to be growing support for the estimation of confidence intervals around point estimates of the relevant parameters, it is unlikely that NHST-based procedures will disappear in the near future. In the meantime, it is widely accepted that effect-size estimates should be reported as a mandatory adjunct to conventional NHST results.


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