Wike's law of low odd primes
Encyclopedia
Wike's law of low odd primes is a methodological principle to help design sound experiment
s in psychology
. It is: "If the number of experimental treatments is a low odd prime number
, then the experimental design is unbalanced and partially confounded
" (Wike, 1973, pp. 192–193).
This law was stated by Edwin Wike in a humorous article in which he also admits that the association of his name with the law is an example of Stigler's law of eponymy
.
The lowest odd prime number is three. Wike illustrates how this yields an unbalanced design with an invented study in which researchers investigated the effects on sexual satisfaction of water beds. The fictitious researchers randomly assigned couples to three groups: those having sex on a conventional bed, those having sex on a water bed, and those having sex on a water bed having also taken a sea sickness pill. Wike pointed out that any differences in sexual satisfaction among the three groups could be due to the water bed or to the sea sickness pill. It requires a fourth group, couples taking the pill and using a conventional bed, to balance the design and to allow the researchers to attribute any differences in sexual satisfaction among the groups to the sort of bed, to the pill, or to their interaction
.
Experiment
An experiment is a methodical procedure carried out with the goal of verifying, falsifying, or establishing the validity of a hypothesis. Experiments vary greatly in their goal and scale, but always rely on repeatable procedure and logical analysis of the results...
s in psychology
Psychology
Psychology is the study of the mind and behavior. Its immediate goal is to understand individuals and groups by both establishing general principles and researching specific cases. For many, the ultimate goal of psychology is to benefit society...
. It is: "If the number of experimental treatments is a low odd prime number
Prime number
A prime number is a natural number greater than 1 that has no positive divisors other than 1 and itself. A natural number greater than 1 that is not a prime number is called a composite number. For example 5 is prime, as only 1 and 5 divide it, whereas 6 is composite, since it has the divisors 2...
, then the experimental design is unbalanced and partially confounded
Confounding
In statistics, a confounding variable is an extraneous variable in a statistical model that correlates with both the dependent variable and the independent variable...
" (Wike, 1973, pp. 192–193).
This law was stated by Edwin Wike in a humorous article in which he also admits that the association of his name with the law is an example of Stigler's law of eponymy
Stigler's law of eponymy
Stigler's law of eponymy is a process proposed by University of Chicago statistics professor Stephen Stigler in his 1980 publication "Stigler’s law of eponymy". In its simplest and strongest form it says: "No scientific discovery is named after its original discoverer." Stigler named the...
.
The lowest odd prime number is three. Wike illustrates how this yields an unbalanced design with an invented study in which researchers investigated the effects on sexual satisfaction of water beds. The fictitious researchers randomly assigned couples to three groups: those having sex on a conventional bed, those having sex on a water bed, and those having sex on a water bed having also taken a sea sickness pill. Wike pointed out that any differences in sexual satisfaction among the three groups could be due to the water bed or to the sea sickness pill. It requires a fourth group, couples taking the pill and using a conventional bed, to balance the design and to allow the researchers to attribute any differences in sexual satisfaction among the groups to the sort of bed, to the pill, or to their interaction
Interaction
Interaction is a kind of action that occurs as two or more objects have an effect upon one another. The idea of a two-way effect is essential in the concept of interaction, as opposed to a one-way causal effect...
.