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Standardization Within Subjects: A Critique of Ben‐Shakhar's Conclusions
Author(s) -
Stemmler Gerhard
Publication year - 1987
Publication title -
psychophysiology
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.661
H-Index - 156
eISSN - 1469-8986
pISSN - 0048-5772
DOI - 10.1111/j.1469-8986.1987.tb00286.x
Subject(s) - generalizability theory , psychology , skin conductance , standardization , response bias , set (abstract data type) , statistics , index (typography) , cognitive psychology , econometrics , social psychology , developmental psychology , computer science , mathematics , world wide web , biomedical engineering , programming language , operating system , medicine
A recent study (Ben‐Shakhar. 1985) reported evidence in favor of standardizing skin conductance response measures within individuals as compared to the Paintal Index (phasic range‐correction) or to raw responses. Notwithstanding the possible efficiency of within‐individual standardization as a means to reduce individual differences in responsivity, this critique is intended to direct attention to three sources of bias that severely limit the generalizability of Ben‐Shakbar's evidence: the response magnitude bias, the bias from unequal numbers of stimuli, and the enhanced correlation of response and standardizing measure. In order to illustrate the range of results obtained from these transformations, an artificial data set was generated based upon the design and statistical procedures employed by Ben‐Shakhar.