331 “p < .05” Abuse, Consequences, and Alternatives

Thursday, March 18, 2010: 8:45 AM-10:00 AM
Convention Center: 110
RC/Measurement
Presider: Marco S. Boscolo, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
Speakers: Weimo Zhu1; Elena Boiarskaia2; Youngsik Park3; and Marco S. Boscolo2, (1)University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, (2)University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL, (3)University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
It is all too common today to see researchers make their “significance” claims or statements based on merely “p < .05,” a single piece of information from their statistical significance tests. This symposium calls for exposing the p value abuse in our research practices. After a brief historical review of statistical significance testing and its positive role in helping scientific decisions, its limitations and widely spread p value abuse phenomenon will be described in detail. More appropriate ways of using information generated from statistical significance tests will be introduced. Finally, related software will be introduced and illustrated.
Sadly, the Earth Is Still Round “p < .05”
Weimo Zhu, University of Illinois - Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
Determining “Significance” Using Effect Size and Meta-Analysis
Elena Boiarskaia, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL and Youngsik Park, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
“Practical Significance:” That Is What We Should Care About
Marco S. Boscolo and Bhibha M. Das, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, Urbana, IL
See more of: Research Consortium