A Proposed Hybrid Effect Size Plus p-Value Criterion:

A Comment on Goodman et al. (2019)

Authors

  • Robin Tim Dreher
  • Leona Hoffmann
  • Arne Kramer-Sunderbrink
  • Peter Pütz Bielefeld University
  • Robin Werner

Keywords:

NHST, Inverval Null Hypothesis, Thick t-test, Statistical evidence, Type I error rate, False discovery rate, Minimum effect size plus p-value criterion

Abstract

In a recent simulation study, Goodman et al. (2019) compare several methods
with regard to their type I and type II error rates when considering
a thick null hypothesis that includes all values that are practically equivalent
to the point null hypothesis. They propose a hybrid decision criterion
only declaring a result "significant" if both a small p-value and a sufficiently
large effect size are obtained. We successfully verify the results using our
own software code in R and discuss an additional decision method that is
tailored to maintain a pre-defined false positive rate. We confirm that the
hybrid decision criterion has comparably low error rates in checkable settings
but point out that the false discovery rate cannot be easily controlled
by the researcher. Our analyses are readily accessible and customizable on
https://github.com/drehero/goodman-replication.

Published

2022-10-24

Issue

Vol. 1 No. 2022-4 (2022): A Proposed Hybrid Effect Size Plus p-Value Criterion. A Comment on Goodman et al. (The American Statistician, 2019)

Section

Articles