Computer Audio Asylum

RE: Thanks

88.110.0.60

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In Reply to: RE: Thanks posted by Christine Tham on March 02, 2010 at 01:33:21

Simply by me making that statement, I have preconditioned the audience to expect differences.

This is true and you are right about the need for stats- but the scenario you describe is not by any stretch of the imagination an experiment, it's a trade-show participation game. Harmless, good fun and possibly informative in a loose, back-of-the-envelope sort of way that no-one with a modicum of scientific training would take too seriously.

Inevitably, as soon as you ask someone to participate in an experiment, you confess that you are looking for something. If you weren't, you wouldn't be doing the damn thing in the first place and you certainly wouldn't be funded for it.

So, you address the problem with measures that have stood the test of time in a myriad of fields - a prior and clearly-defined null hypothesis, appropriate controls and defined control groups. You do NOT do it by losing control of your own experiment. If your own antics prejudice the results, the experiment is either badly designed or poorly conducted - and probably both.

Must dash - I hear there's a real wheeze on Stand 413 - if you do their cable-shootout test and give the right answer, you get a free drink.

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