When to adjust alpha during multiple testing: a consideration of disjunction, conjunction, and individual testing.

Scientists often adjust their significance threshold (alpha level) during null hypothesis significance testing in order to take into account multiple testing and multiple comparisons. This alpha adjustment has become particularly relevant in the context of the replication crisis in science. The pres...

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Publicado en:Synthese Vol. 199; no. 3/4; pp. 10969 - 11001
Autor principal: Rubin, Mark
Formato: Artículo
Publicado: Springer Nature Dec2021
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Acceso en línea:Ver este registro en EBSCOhost
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        atl: When to adjust alpha during multiple testing: a consideration of disjunction, conjunction, and individual testing.
      aug:
        au: Rubin, Mark
        affil: School of Psychology, Behavioural Sciences Building, The University of Newcastle, 2308, Callaghan, NSW, Australia
      su:
        Null hypothesis
        Conformance testing
        Multiple comparisons (Statistics)
        False positive error
        Statistical hypothesis testing
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          Null hypothesis
          Conformance testing
          Multiple comparisons (Statistics)
          False positive error
          Statistical hypothesis testing
      keyword:
        Experimentwise error
        Familywise error
        Multiple comparisons
        Multiple testing
        Simultaneous testing
        Type I error
      ab: Scientists often adjust their significance threshold (alpha level) during null hypothesis significance testing in order to take into account multiple testing and multiple comparisons. This alpha adjustment has become particularly relevant in the context of the replication crisis in science. The present article considers the conditions in which this alpha adjustment is appropriate and the conditions in which it is inappropriate. A distinction is drawn between three types of multiple testing: disjunction testing, conjunction testing, and individual testing. It is argued that alpha adjustment is only appropriate in the case of disjunction testing, in which at least one test result must be significant in order to reject the associated joint null hypothesis. Alpha adjustment is inappropriate in the case of conjunction testing, in which all relevant results must be significant in order to reject the joint null hypothesis. Alpha adjustment is also inappropriate in the case of individual testing, in which each individual result must be significant in order to reject each associated individual null hypothesis. The conditions under which each of these three types of multiple testing is warranted are examined. It is concluded that researchers should not automatically (mindlessly) assume that alpha adjustment is necessary during multiple testing. Illustrations are provided in relation to joint studywise hypotheses and joint multiway ANOVAwise hypotheses.
      pubtype: Academic Journal
      doctype: Article
      src: R
    language: English
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