Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 20, 2026

A Two-interval Forced-choice Task for Multisensory Comparisons
Published on: November 9, 2018
Significance testing, interval estimation or Bayesian inference: comments to "Extracting a maximum of useful
1Department of Statistics, Stockholm University, SE-10691 Stockholm, Sweden. Daniel.Thorburn@stat.su.se
Abstract:
Statistical inference plays an important part in the formation of scientific knowledge in psychology. Starting from a paper by Sohlberg and Andersson (2005; Scandinavian Journal of Psychology, 46, 69-77) these issues are discussed. It is argued that interval estimates are easy to understand and that they are more suitable than significance testing for most problems. Bayesian inference is a coherent description of the information building process. With some examples it is shown that null hypothesis significance testing is full of contradictions. Finally, some other important issues like convenience sampling and model selection are shortly mentioned.
Related Concept Videos
Significance Testing: Overview
Statistical Significance
Statistical Hypothesis Testing
Statistical significance measures the probability that an observed result occurred by chance. If this probability, known as...
Critical Region, Critical Values and Significance Level
In hypothesis testing, a sample statistic is converted to a test statistic using z, t, or chi-square distribution. A critical region is an area under the curve in probability distributions demarcated by the critical value. When the test statistic falls in this region, it suggests that the null hypothesis must be rejected. As this region contains all those values of the test...
Interpretation of Confidence Intervals
Confidence intervals have confidence coefficients that are crucial for their interpretation. The most common confidence coefficients are 0.90, 0.95, and 0.99, which can be written as percentages–90%, 95%, and 99%, respectively.
Suppose a person calculates a confidence interval with a confidence coefficient of 0.95. In that case, they can...
Decision Making: Traditional Method
First, a specific claim about the population parameter is decided based on the research question and is stated in a simple form. Further, an opposing statement to this claim is also stated. These statements can act as null and alternative hypotheses, out of which a null hypothesis would be a...