What does a psychologist usually mean when she says a particular experimental result is 'significant'?
A) The result reflects a large difference between the mean scores of one participant group and the mean scores of another.
B) The result is important in a practical sense.
C) The result will allow psychologists to support one theory over alternative theories.
D) The result is unlikely to have occurred solely as a result of chance.

Question

Quizplus · Accepted Answer

When a psychologist says a particular experimental result is 'significant', they mean that the result is unlikely to have occurred solely as a result of chance. In statistical language, this means that the result has a low probability of occurring by chance, usually defined as a p-value lower than 0.05. This does not necessarily mean that the result is practically important or supports one theory over others, but it does suggest that the effect observed is real and not just a fluke of the data.

What Does a Psychologist Usually Mean When She Says a Particular