ArticleBehavior research methods2024
Assumption-checking rather than (just) testing: The importance of visualization and effect size in statistical diagnostics.
Article in Behavior research methods, 2024. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 22 papers.
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Who cites it
22 citing papers in PubMed.
- Effect of framed mHealth messages on oral hygiene and quality of life among Sudanese refugees in Egypt: a randomized controlled trial.BMC oral health · 2026Trial
- Managing fatigue in Parkinson's disease: Preparing for a randomized controlled trial.Journal of Parkinson's disease · 2025Trial
- Effects of a symptom-titrated exercise program on fatigue and quality of life in people with post-COVID condition - a randomized controlled trial.Scientific reports · 2024Trial
- The Relationship Between Social-Emotional Learning Skills and Learning Motivation Among University Students: Exploring the Roles of Emotional Intelligence and Emotion Regulation.Behavioral sciences (Basel, Switzerland) · 2026Article
- The shrinking landscape of linguistic diversity in the age of large language models.Nature human behaviour · 2026Article
- Performance Optimization of Novel Laser Hybrid Ultrasonic Vibration Assisted Micro Milling for Inconel 718.Scientific reports · 2026Article
- Parkinsonian gait improvement through vibratory stride parameter feedback.Journal of neuroengineering and rehabilitation · 2026Article
- Vividness of visual imagery is associated with perceived clarity of recall but not with accuracy during exams.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Applicability of Regression Models for the Analysis of Ordinal PANSS Data in Schizophrenia: A Cohort Study.Consortium psychiatricum · 2026Article
- Perfectionism and choice deferral in online shopping: a moderated mediation model of fear of missing out and upward social comparison.Frontiers in psychology · 2026Article
- Characterizing the repeatability of cardiovascular responses to hypoxic apneas in adults.Physiological reports · 2025Article
- Social cognition and decision-making in people with methamphetamine use disorder.Addiction (Abingdon, England) · 2025Article
- Assessing the robustness of normality tests under varying skewness and kurtosis: a practical checklist for public health researchers.BMC medical research methodology · 2025Article
- Intraspecific variation of thermal tolerance along elevational gradients: the case of a widespread diving beetle (Coleoptera: Dytiscidae).Insect science · 2025Article
- Predicting Engagement With Conversational Agents in Mental Health Therapy by Examining the Role of Epistemic Trust, Personality, and Fear of Intimacy: Cross-Sectional Web-Based Survey Study.JMIR human factors · 2025Article
- Patient-Specific Variability in Interleukin-6 and Myeloperoxidase Responses in Osteoarthritis: Insights from Synthetic Data and Clustering Analysis.Journal of personalized medicine · 2025Article
- Comparing recovery community centers (RCCs) serving Black, Hispanic/Latino, and other communities: an exploratory secondary data analysis of a nationwide survey of RCC directors.Frontiers in public health · 2025Article
- Understanding accounting professionals' intention to adopt robotic process automation: a TOE-based empirical assessment from an emerging country.Frontiers in robotics and AI · 2025Article
- Common misconceptions held by health researchers when interpreting linear regression assumptions, a cross-sectional study.PloS one · 2025Article
- Brain compensatory activation during Stroop task in patients with mild cognitive impairment: a functional near-infrared spectroscopy study.Frontiers in aging neuroscience · 2025Article
Corrections and comments
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Authors and funding
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Abstract
Statistical methods generally have assumptions (e.g., normality in linear regression models). Violations of these assumptions can cause various issues, like statistical errors and biased estimates, whose impact can range from inconsequential to critical. Accordingly, it is important to check these assumptions, but this is often done in a flawed way. Here, I first present a prevalent but problematic approach to diagnostics-testing assumptions using null hypothesis significance tests (e.g., the Shapiro-Wilk test of normality). Then, I consolidate and illustrate the issues with this approach, primarily using simulations. These issues include statistical errors (i.e., false positives, especially with large samples, and false negatives, especially with small samples), false binarity, limited descriptiveness, misinterpretation (e.g., of p-value as an effect size), and potential testing failure due to unmet test assumptions. Finally, I synthesize the implications of these issues for statistical diagnostics, and provide practical recommendations for improving such diagnostics. Key recommendations include maintaining awareness of the issues with assumption tests (while recognizing they can be useful), using appropriate combinations of diagnostic methods (including visualization and effect sizes) while recognizing their limitations, and distinguishing between testing and checking assumptions. Additional recommendations include judging assumption violations as a complex spectrum (rather than a simplistic binary), using programmatic tools that increase replicability and decrease researcher degrees of freedom, and sharing the material and rationale involved in the diagnostics.
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Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.