Dealing with Distributional Assumptions in Preregistered Research

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dc.citation.volume3
dc.contributor.authorWilliams M
dc.contributor.authorAlbers C
dc.date.available12/09/2019
dc.date.issued31/10/2018
dc.description.abstractVirtually any inferential statistical analysis relies on distributional assumptions of some kind. The violation of distributional assumptions can result in consequences ranging from small changes to error rates through to substantially biased estimates. Conventionally, researchers have conducted assumption checks after collecting data, and then changed the primary analysis technique if distributional problems are observed. An approach to dealing with distributional assumptions that requires decisions to be made contingent on observed data is problematic, however, in preregistered research, where researchers attempt to specify all important analysis decisions prior to collecting data. Limited methodological advice is currently available about how to deal with the prospect of distributional assumption violations in preregistered research. In this article, we examine several strategies that researchers could use in preregistrations to reduce the potential impact of distributional assumption violations. We suggest that pre-emptively selecting analysis methods that are as robust as possible to assumption violations, performing planned sensitivity analyses, and/or supplementing preregistered confirmatory analyses with exploratory checks of distributional assumptions may all be useful strategies. On the other hand, we suggest prespecifying ‘decision trees’ for selecting data analysis methods based on the distributional characteristics of the data may not be practical in most situations.
dc.description.confidentialFALSE
dc.edition.edition2019
dc.format.extent? - ? (15)
dc.identifierhttps://open.lnu.se/index.php/metapsychology/article/view/1592
dc.identifier1592
dc.identifier.citationMeta-Psychology, 2019, 2019, 3 pp. ? - ? (15)
dc.identifier.doi10.15626/MP.2018.1592
dc.identifier.elements-id426952
dc.identifier.harvestedMassey_Dark
dc.identifier.issn2003-2714
dc.identifier.urihttps://hdl.handle.net/10179/14980
dc.languageEnglish
dc.publisherPsyArXiv
dc.publisher.urihttps://open.lnu.se/index.php/metapsychology/article/view/1592
dc.relation.isPartOfMeta-Psychology
dc.relation.urihttps://open.lnu.se/index.php/metapsychology/article/view/1592
dc.subjectpreregistrations
dc.subjectdistributional assumptions
dc.subjectopen science
dc.subjecttransparency
dc.titleDealing with Distributional Assumptions in Preregistered Research
dc.typeJournal article
pubs.notesNot known
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Humanities and Social Sciences
pubs.organisational-group/Massey University/College of Humanities and Social Sciences/School of Psychology
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