Statistical Significance

Statistical significance is a statistical concept introduced by Sir Ronald Fisher in the 1920s as part of a statistical strategy called significance testing. Significance testing is a technique for evaluating whether effects found in a sample are also present in the population from which the sample was drawn or whether its presence in the sample reflects sampling error. The term effect is a general term referring to any quantitative relation, pattern, or difference between means or other statistics that interests the researcher. Although Fisher’s significance testing has largely been superseded by what is now commonly called null hypothesis significance testing, the concept of statistical significance remains an important element of the technique. The goal of significance testing is to evaluate whether a null hypothesis, ...

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