A common misapplication of statistical inference: Nuisance control with null-hypothesis significance tests

• Published in: Brain and language Vol. 162; pp. 42 - 45
• Main Authors: Sassenhagen, Jona, Alday, Phillip M.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: Netherlands Elsevier Inc 01.11.2016; Academic Press
• Subjects: Behavioral Research - methods; Cognition; Confounding Factors (Epidemiology); Humans; Inference; Language; Miscommunication; Models, Statistical; Statistical inference; Word frequency; Word length

•Researchers use statistical tests of stimulus or subjects characteristics to “control for confounds”.•This practice is conceptually misguided and pragmatically useless.•We discuss the problem and alternatives. Experimental research on behavior and cognition frequently rests on stimulus or subject s...