Three Strategies for the Critical Use of Statistical Methods in Psychological Research

Area of Science:

• Psychological research methodology
• Cognitive science
• Statistical modeling

Background:

• Traditional null hypothesis significance testing (NHST) in psychology has limitations.
• Alternative analytical and design strategies are needed to advance psychological research.
• Existing methods for visual representation and model comparison offer potential improvements.

Purpose of the Study:

• To present a combined approach using three strategies to replace null hypothesis significance testing.
• To utilize visual representations for cognitive processes, data distributions, and model comparison.
• To guide research design and analysis in psychological research, using reasoning as a case study.

Main Methods:

• Strategy 1: Visual representation of cognitive processes and predictions.
• Strategy 2: Generalized Additive Models for Location, Scale and Shape (GAMLSS) for visual data distribution fitting.
• Strategy 3: Model comparison to evaluate researcher's model against alternatives.

Main Results:

• The study demonstrates the application of the combined three-strategy approach.
• A worked example in the field of reasoning illustrates the practical implementation.
• The combined strategies serve as analytical, reporting, and research design tools.

Conclusions:

• Combining visual modeling of cognitive processes, GAMLSS distribution analysis, and model comparison offers a robust alternative to NHST.
• This integrated approach enhances the rigor of psychological research design and data interpretation.
• The proposed framework provides a comprehensive strategy for advancing psychological science.