Significance testing with incompletely randomised cases cannot possibly work

Gorard, S.

Abstract

This brief paper illustrates why the use of significance testing cannot possibly work with incompletely randomised cases. The first section reminds readers of the logical argument of “denying the consequence”, and the fallacy of trying to affirm the consequence, of a set of premises. The second section extends the argument of the denying the consequence to the weaker situation where there is uncertainty, and the third shows that this weaker situation is the „logical‟ basis for the practice of significance testing when analysing data. The fourth section looks at how the same argument becomes a fallacy when conducting significance tests with incompletely randomised or non-random cases. The final section summarises the implications for analysts, and for their future analyses and reporting.

Citation

Gorard, S. (2018). Significance testing with incompletely randomised cases cannot possibly work. International journal of science and research methodology, 11(2), 42-51

• Journal Article Type: Article
• Acceptance Date: Nov 26, 2018
• Online Publication Date: Dec 30, 2018
• Publication Date: Dec 31, 2018
• Deposit Date: Dec 11, 2018
• Publicly Available Date: Dec 12, 2018
• Journal: International journal of science and research methodology
• Electronic ISSN: 2454-2008
• Publisher: Human Journals
• Peer Reviewed: Peer Reviewed
• Volume: 11
• Issue: 2
• Pages: 42-51
• Public URL: https://durham-repository.worktribe.com/output/1311996
• Publisher URL: http://ijsrm.humanjournals.com/significance-testing-with-incompletely-randomised-cases-cannot-possibly-work/