[Coral-List] Statistics.

John Ware jware at erols.com
Tue Jun 1 14:00:32 EDT 2010


Dear List Members,

While I am sure we all appreciate Richard Dunne's recent and learned 
comments on statistical testing, let us not forget that what most 
coral-reef scientists are trying to find out is something of real 
significance.

Too often, we seem to replace "statistical significance" with 
"significance".  Clearly there can be statistically significant results 
that have no real significance and one can obtain non-statistically 
significant results when there is a very real significance of the test 
variable (but the effect is not detected due to poor design or a limited 
sample).

John

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shame on you.
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