HISTORICAL ORIGINS OF STATISTICAL TESTING PRACTICES - THE TREATMENT OF FISHER VERSUS NEYMAN-PEARSON VIEWS IN TEXTBOOKS

Textbook discussion of statistical testing is the topic of interest. S ome 28 books published from 1910 to 1949, 19 books published from 1990 to 1992, plus five multiple-edition books were reviewed in terms of p resentations of statistical testing. It was of interest to discover te xtbook coverage of the P-value (i.e., Fisher) and fixed-alpha (i.e., N eyman-Pearson) approaches to statistical testing. Also of interest in the review were some issues and concerns related to the practice and t eaching of statistical testing: (a) levels of significance, (b) import ance of effects, (c) statistical power and sample size, and (d) multip le testing. It is concluded that it is not statistical testing itself that is at fault; rather, some of the textbook presentation, teaching practices, and journal editorial reviewing may be questioned.