Speaker: Dr. David Flora, York University
Department of Psychology

Title: Effect size reporting for psychological research: Standardization gives the illusion of simplification

Abstract: In 2009, I gave a presentation at the Social/Personality brownbag called Effect Sizes for Psychological Research Reporting: It Doesn’t Have to be So Complicated! In this talk, I will revisit the points I tried to make at that time. I have not changed my mind. Specifically, I will contrast unstandardized effect sizes (e.g., mean differences, unstandardized regression slopes) with standardized effect sizes (e.g., Cohen’s d, standardized regression slopes) and make a case that unstandardized effect sizes are more appropriate for communicating the primary results of a psychological research study. Effects are more easily understood if they are in the original metric of the operational variables.