Abstract
Wider use in psychology of confidence intervals (CIs), especially
as error bars in figures, is a desirable development. However, psychologists
seldom use CIs and may not understand them well. The authors discuss
the interpretation of figures with error bars and analyze the relationship
between CIs and statistical significance testing. They propose 7
rules of eye to guide the inferential use of figures with error bars.
These include general principles: Seek bars that relate directly
to effects of interest, be sensitive to experimental design, and
interpret the intervals. They also include guidelines for inferential
interpretation of the overlap of CIs on independent group means.
Wider use of interval estimation in psychology has the potential
to improve research communication substantially.
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