Reform of statistical inference in psychology: The case ofMemory & Cognition

Geoffrey Loftus, Editor ofMemory & Cognition from 1994 to 1997, strongly encouraged presentation of figures with error bars and avoidance of null hypothesis significance testing (NHST). The authors examined 696Memory & Cognition articles published before, during, and after the Loftus editorship. Use of figures with bars increased to 47% under Loftus’s editorship and then declined. Bars were rarely used for interpretation, and NHST remained almost universal. Analysis of 309 articles in other psychology journals confirmed that Loftus’s influence was most evident in the articles he accepted for publication, but was otherwise limited. An e-mail survey of authors of papers accepted by Loftus revealed some support for his policy, but allegiance to traditional practices as well. Reform of psychologists’ statistical practices would require more than editorial encouragement.

Geoffrey Loftus是1994年至1997年的记忆和认知的编辑，强烈地呈现了错误栏的数字，并避免了NULL假设的显着性测试（NHST）。 ation，然后NHST几乎是对其他心理学期刊中的309篇文章的普遍性，证实了Loftus的影响是他接受的文章，但否则是对Loftus接受的作者的电子邮件调查。