The DOI matches its Crossref record; 44 of the 44 references it cites were found in a registry or an index.
The earth is round (p < .05).
Abstract
After 4 decades of severe criticism, the ritual of null hypothesis significance testing (mechanical dichotomous decisions around a sacred .05 criterion) still persists. This article reviews the problems with this practice, including near universal misinterpretation of p as the probability that H₀ is false, the misinterpretation that its complement is the probability of successful replication, and the mistaken assumption that if one rejects H₀ one thereby affirms the theory that led to the test. Exploratory data analysis and the use of graphic methods, a steady improvement in and a movement toward standardization in measurement, an emphasis on estimating effect sizes using confidence intervals, and the informed use of available statistical methods are suggested. For generalization, psychologists must finally rely, as has been done in all the older sciences, on replication. (PsycINFO Database Record (c) 2012 APA, all rights reserved)
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In the citing paper
“As in any statistical application, accepting the null hypothesis (in this case, a null hypothesis of no interaction) should be understood as being distinct from a failure to reject it (Cohen, 1994).”
From Enrichment Effects on Adult Cognitive Development: Can the Functional Capacity of Older Adults Be Preserved and Enhanced? (2008) · cites this paper as Cohen, 1994
In the citing paper
“Therefore, NHST only tells us about the probability of obtaining data which are equally or more discrepant than those obtained in the event that H0 is true (Cohen, 1994; Nickerson, 2000; Balluerka et al., 2009; Kline, 2013).”
From Misconceptions of the p-value among Chilean and Italian Academic Psychologists (2016) · cites this paper as Cohen, 1994
In the citing paper
“The most common misconceptions about p-value are “inverse probability fallacy,” “replication fallacy,” “effect size fallacy,” and “clinical or practical significance fallacy” (Carver, 1978; Cohen, 1994; Kirk, 1996; Nickerson, 2000; Kline, 2013).”
From Misconceptions of the p-value among Chilean and Italian Academic Psychologists (2016) · cites this paper as Cohen, 1994
In the citing paper
“This is might be because of two reasons: the programmer could have found a problem while coding, who at first will try to solve it by reading the code, switching out from the IDE, navigating the call stack and debugging, before going to ask another teammate, according to LaToza et al. [35]; this set of actions end up with an interruption and reduce the observed activity within the IDE.”
From Work fragmentation in developer interaction data (2017) · cites this paper as [35]
In the citing paper
“These categories of events agree with our previous hypothesis that positive interruptions are related to information seeking [9,35], while negative interruptions are related to actual task switches where context needs to be rebuilt afterwards.”
From Work fragmentation in developer interaction data (2017) · cites this paper as [35]
In the citing paper
“Our results and theoretical foundations are based on observational studies performed on information workers' development environments [5,6,35,10].”
From Work fragmentation in developer interaction data (2017) · cites this paper as [35]
Citations
Cites
Statistical power analysis for the behavioral sciences
Cohen, J. (1990) · Computers Environment and Urban Systems · doi:10.1016/0198-9715(90)90050-4 · Cited by 65,417
Self-citationStatistical Power Analysis for the Behavioral Sciences (2nd ed.).
Lachenbruch, P. A., & Cohen, J. (1989) · Journal of the American Statistical Association · doi:10.2307/2290095 · Cited by 37,421
Self-citationDavid, F. N., & Tukey, J. W. (1977) · Biometrics · doi:10.2307/2529486 · Cited by 12,707
Statistical Methods for Research Workers
Fisher, R. A. (1945) · American Journal of Clinical Pathology · doi:10.1093/ajcp/15.11.552b · Cited by 10,883
The file drawer problem and tolerance for null results.
Rosenthal, R. (1979) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/0033-2909.86.3.638 · Cited by 9,068
The Logic of Scientific Discovery
Bhaskar, R. (2013) · Routledge eBooks · doi:10.4324/9780203090732-9 · Cited by 7,765
The visual display of quantitative information
(1985) · General Pharmacology The Vascular System · doi:10.1016/0306-3623(85)90230-7 · Cited by 5,090
Belief in the law of small numbers.
Tversky, A., & Kahneman, D. (1971) · Psychological Bulletin · doi:10.1037/h0031322 · Cited by 3,246
Kemp, C. D., & Tufte, E. R. (1992) · Biometrics · doi:10.2307/2532323 · Cited by 2,728
Meehl, P. E. (1978) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology · doi:10.1037/0022-006x.46.4.806 · Cited by 2,061
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Mediation in experimental and nonexperimental studies: New procedures and recommendations.
Shrout, P. E., & Bolger, N. (2002) · Psychological Methods · doi:10.1037/1082-989x.7.4.422 · Cited by 11,335
Statistical Comparisons of Classifiers over Multiple Data Sets
Demšar, J. (2006) · doi:10.5555/1248547.1248548 · Cited by 12,051
Corporate Social and Financial Performance: A Meta-Analysis
Orlitzky, M., Schmidt, F. L., & Rynes, S. L. (2003) · Organization Studies · doi:10.1177/0170840603024003910 · Cited by 7,641
Using pls path modeling in new technology research: updated guidelines
Henseler, J., Hubona, G., & Ray, P. A. (2016) · Industrial Management & Data Systems · doi:10.1108/imds-09-2015-0382 · Cited by 7,173
Assessing measurement model quality in PLS-SEM using confirmatory composite analysis
Hair, J. F., Howard, M. C., & Nitzl, C. (2020) · Journal of Business Research · doi:10.1016/j.jbusres.2019.11.069 · Cited by 5,446
Metadata
- Authors
- Cohen, J.
- Affiliations
- New York University (US)
- Corresponding author
- Cohen, Jacob
- Venue
- American Psychologist
- Published
- 1994-12
- Volume
- 49
- Issue
- 12
- Pages
- 997-1003
- ISSN
- 0003-066X (ISSN-L)
- 1935-990X
- OpenAlex
- W2030360178
- Cited by
- 4,003
- References
- 43
- Citations by year
- 2026: 94 · 2025: 122 · 2024: 87 · 2023: 116 · 2022: 128 · 2021: 161 · 2020: 255 · 2019: 178 · 2018: 184 · 2017: 177 · 2016: 187 · 2015: 182 · 2014: 183 · 2013: 167 · 2012: 172
- FWCI
- 87.17
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- closed
- Locations
- American Psychologist (publishedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Decision Sciences › Statistics, Probability and Uncertainty › Meta-analysis and systematic reviews
- Physical Sciences › Mathematics › Statistics and Probability › Statistical Methods and Bayesian Inference
- Social Sciences › Psychology › Experimental and Cognitive Psychology › Psychology Research and Bibliometrics
- Keywords
- null hypothesis significance testing, misinterpretation of p-values, replication, effect size estimation, confidence intervals, exploratory data analysis, measurement standardization, psychology research practice
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