Effectiveness of a Decision Aid for Selection of Statistical Procedures

Abstract

This paper concerns the design and test of a system developed to facilitate the selection of statistical procedures in educational applications. Subjects were randomly assigned to two experimental groups ( ns = 15, 17) and a control group ( n = 13). The former groups were given a flow chart and a computer-based aid, the latter had only a text. Comparisons between experimental and control groups showed significant differences in performance, supporting the proposition that the use of statistics can be enhanced by a support system.