Statistical practices of educational researchers: An analysis of their ANOVA, MANOVA, and ANCOVA analyses

Articles published in several prominent educational journals were examined to investigate the use of data-analysis tools by researchers in four research paradigms: between-subjects univariate designs, between-subjects multivariate designs, repeated measures designs, and covariance designs. In addition to examining specific details pertaining to the research design (e.g., sample size, group size equality/inequality) and methods employed for data analysis, we also catalogued whether: (a) validity assumptions were examined, (b) effect size indices were reported, (c) sample sizes were selected based on power considerations, and (d) appropriate textbooks and/or articles were cited to communicate the nature of the analyses that were performed. Our analyses imply that researchers rarely verify that validity assumptions are satisfied and accordingly typically use analyses that are nonrobust to assumption violations. In addition, researchers rarely report effect size statistics, nor do they routinely perform power analyses to determine sample size requirements. We offer many recommendations to rectify these shortcomings.Social Sciences and Humanities Research Counci

Characterizing Finger Pitch and Roll Orientation During Atomic Touch Actions

International audienceAtomic interactions in touch interfaces, like tap, drag, and flick, are well understood in terms of interaction design, but less is known about their physical performance characteristics. We carried out a study to gather baseline data about finger pitch and roll orientation during atomic touch input actions. Our results show differences in orientation and range for different fingers, hands, and actions, and we analyse the effect of tablet angle. Our data provides designers and researchers with a new resource to better understand what interactions are possible in different settings (e.g. when using the left or right hand), to design novel interaction techniques that use orientation as input (e.g. using finger tilt as an implicit mode), and to determine whether new sensing techniques are feasible (e.g. using fingerprints for identifying specific finger touches)