Chalmers recently published a critique of the use of ordinal a[alpha] proposed in Zumbo et al. as a measure of test reliability in certain research settings. In this response, we take up the task of refuting Chalmers' critique. We identify three broad misconceptions that characterize Chalmers' criticisms: (1) confusing assumptions with…

On the basis of the statistical concept of waiting time and on computer simulations of the "probabilities of nonoccurrence" (p. 457) for random sequences, Hahn and Warren (2009) proposed that given people's experience of a finite data stream from the environment, the gambler's fallacy is not as gross an error as it might seem. We deal with two…

The author previously published a paper discussing how to conduct an analysis based on a cluster sample. In that paper, the author outlined several widely adopted alternative approaches, and pointed out that such approaches are anyway not needed for population figures, and not possible for non-probability samples. Thus, the author queried the…

In this article, the author responds to the paper "Exploring pre-service teachers' understanding of statistical variation: Implications for teaching and research" by Sashi Sharma (see EJ779107). In that paper, Sharma described a study "designed to investigate pre-service teachers' acknowledgment of variation in sampling and…

Paul Stapleton's (2006) critique of quantitative research brings to the surface some common interpretive problems arising when experimental and quasi-experimental research designs are compared. While Stapleton may be correct in pointing out the superiority of experimental research designs because they best eliminate the influence of extraneous…

In a recent article in this journal, Lombard, Snyder-Duch, and Bracken (2002) surveyed 200 content analyses for their reporting of reliability tests, compared the virtues and drawbacks of five popular reliability measures, and proposed guidelines and standards for their use. Their discussion revealed that numerous misconceptions circulate in the…