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arxiv: 1810.06387 · v1 · pith:NQ66FJHEnew · submitted 2018-10-15 · 📊 stat.OT

I can see clearly now: reinterpreting statistical significance

classification 📊 stat.OT
keywords significancestatisticalclearlyclaritydespitenull-hypothesistestingtests
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Null hypothesis significance testing remains popular despite decades of concern about misuse and misinterpretation. We believe that much of the problem is due to language: significance testing has little to do with other meanings of the word "significance". Despite the limitations of null-hypothesis tests, we argue here that they remain useful in many contexts as a guide to whether a certain effect can be seen clearly in that context (e.g. whether we can clearly see that a correlation or between-group difference is positive or negative). We therefore suggest that researchers describe the conclusions of null-hypothesis tests in terms of statistical "clarity" rather than statistical "significance". This simple semantic change could substantially enhance clarity in statistical communication.

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