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"Galileo and significance testing versus Newton and mathematical modeling: Revolution, backward and forward"

Speaker: Joe Rodgers, Department of Psychology & Human Development

Abstract: Mathematical and statistical models (MSM's) are one type of constrained language structure. There are others, such as poetry and art. As introduction, MSM's are compared and contrasted to other constrained language structures. Following, I trace recent developments signaling an epistemological shift from null-hypothesis-significance-testing as the primary organizing statistical framework, to a framework organized around MSM's. I then place this development into historical perspective, with reference to an earlier and similar epistemological shift in the 17th century. I conclude by presenting a clever palindrome that was never published.