Book Reviews

The impressive 1997 edited volume What If There Were No Significance Tests? is reviewed. The book is applauded for its comprehensive consideration of the pros and cons of statistical hypothesis testing (and alternatives) in psychological and educational research. The highlights of each chapter are summarized along with each contributor's presumed stance on the focal to-test-or-not-to-test question. Also included is the reviewer's personal set of recommendations for transforming statistical hypothesis testing, as it is currently practiced, into an intelligent process that is capable of yielding more informative scientific retums.

[1]  F. Schmidt.  Statistical Significance Testing and Cumulative Knowledge in Psychology: Implications for Training of Researchers , 1996 .

[2]  Joel R. Levin.  Overcoming feelings of powerlessness in "aging" researchers: a primer on statistical power in analysis of variance designs. , 1997 .

[3]  J. Hunter.  Needed: A Ban on the Significance Test , 1997 .

[4]  B. Thompson.  Editorial Policies Regarding Statistical Significance Testing : Three Suggested Reforms , 2012 .

[5]  M. Knott.  Readings in Statistics for the Behavioral Sciences , 1971 .

[6]  J. H. Steiger.  Structural Model Evaluation and Modification: An Interval Estimation Approach. , 1990, Multivariate behavioral research.

[7]  Robert E. Slavin,et al.  Best-Evidence Synthesis: An Alternative to Meta-Analytic and Traditional Reviews , 1986 .

[8]  B. Thompson.  Research news and Comment: AERA Editorial Policies Regarding Statistical Significance Testing: Three Suggested Reforms , 1996 .

[9]  J. Levin,et al.  Reflections on Statistical and Substantive Significance, with a Slice of Replication. , 1997 .

[10]  Joseph Berkson,et al.  Tests of significance considered as evidence , 1942 .

[11]  Denton E. Morrison,et al.  The Significance Test Controversy , 1972 .

[12]  Charles J. Brainerd,et al.  Cognitive Learning and Memory in Children , 1985 .

[13]  A. Greenwald,et al.  Effect sizes and p values: what should be reported and what should be replicated? , 1996, Psychophysiology.

[14]  R. Wilcox.  Introduction to Robust Estimation and Hypothesis Testing , 1997 .

[15]  R. Frick,et al.  The appropriate use of null hypothesis testing. , 1996 .

[16]  Ewald Neumann,et al.  Testing for predicted patterns: When interest in the whole is greater than in some of its parts. , 1999 .

[17]  D. Lykken.  Statistical significance in psychological research. , 1968, Psychological bulletin.

[18]  Statistical Issues: A Reader for the Behavioral Sciences , 1972 .

[19]  Margaret Epp,et al.  The earth is round , 1998 .

[20]  Joel Kupfersmid,et al.  Improving what is published: A model in search of an editor. , 1988 .

[21]  Frank Yates,et al.  The Influence of Statistical Methods for Research Workers on the Development of the Science of Statistics , 1951 .

[22]  A. Greenwald.  Consequences of Prejudice Against the Null Hypothesis , 1975 .

[23]  Robert P. Abelson,et al.  On the Surprising Longevity of Flogged Horses: Why There Is a Case for the Significance Test , 1997 .

[24]  J. Levin.  Statistical Significance Testing From Three Perspectives , 1993 .

[25]  Bruce Thompson,et al.  The Use (and Misuse) of Statistical Significance Testing: Some Recommendations for Improved Editorial Policy and Practice. , 1987 .

[26]  Jacob Cohen.  The earth is round (p < .05) , 1994 .

[27]  R. Abelson.  Statistics As Principled Argument , 1995 .

[28]  H. Kaiser,et al.  Directional statistical decisions. , 1960, Psychological review.

[29]  Dana Quade,et al.  The Minimally Important Difference Significant Criterion for Sample Size , 1992 .

[30]  W. W. Rozeboom.  The fallacy of the null-hypothesis significance test. , 1960, Psychological bulletin.

[31]  Daniel H. Robinson,et al.  Research news and Comment: Reflections on Statistical and Substantive Significance, With a Slice of Replication , 1997 .

[32]  Gideon Keren,et al.  A Handbook for Data Analysis in the Behavioral Sciences: Statistical Issues , 1993 .

[33]  Joel R. Levin,et al.  Some Methodological and Statistical “Bugs” in Research on Children’s Learning , 1985 .

[34]  G. William Walster,et al.  A Proposal for a New Editorial Policy in the Social Sciences , 1970 .