Solomon four-group design

The Solomon four-group design is a research method developed by Richard Solomon in 1949.[1] It is sometimes used in social science, psychology and medicine. It can be used if there are concerns that the treatment might be sensitized by the pre-test.[2] In addition of the usual two groups (treatment and control), it has a second pair of groups who do not receive a pre-intervention evaluation.

Structure edit

The structure of the trial is shown in the table :[citation needed]

The four groups in the Solomon design
Group Pre-intervention Intervention Post-intervention
1 Test Treatment Test
2 Test Control Test
3 No test Treatment Test
4 No test Control Test

The first two groups receive the evaluation test before and after the study, as in a normal two-group trial. The second groups receive the evaluation only after the study.[citation needed]

The effectiveness of the treatment can be evaluated by comparisons between groups 1 and 3 and between groups 2 and 4.[citation needed]. In addition, the effect of the pre-treatment evaluation can be calculated by comparing the control group who received the pre-treatment evaluation with those who did not (groups 2 and 4).

Various statistical treatments for the Solomon four-group design have been put forward, including Stouffer's Z and Monte Carlo.[3][4]

References edit

  1. ^ Navarro, Mario; Siegel, Jason T. (2018). "Solomon Four-Group Design". SAGE Publications. Retrieved 22 November 2019. The Solomon four-group design, developed by Richard Solomon in 1949, was devised to overcome the problem of pretest sensitization.
  2. ^ Introduction to Research in Education by Donald Ary, Lucy Jacobs, Christine Sorensen
  3. ^ Sawilowsky, Shlomo S.; Markman, Barry S. (1988). "Another Look At The Power Of Meta-Analysis In The Solomon Four-Group Design" (PDF). Education Resources Information Center. Retrieved 22 November 2019. This paper demonstrates that a meta-analysis technique applied to the Solomon Four-Group Design (SFGD) can fail to find significance even though an earlier 'weaker' test may have found significance.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)
  4. ^ Sawilowsky, Shlomo S.; Kelley, D. Lynn; Blair, R. Clifford; Markman, Barry S. (1994). "Meta-Analysis and the Solomon Four-Group Design". The Journal of Experimental Education. 62 (4). JSTOR: 361–376. doi:10.1080/00220973.1994.9944140. JSTOR 20152427. The present study is a Monte Carlo demonstration.{{cite journal}}: CS1 maint: multiple names: authors list (link)