Over the past 25 years, meta-analysis has assumed a significant role in the synthesis of counseling and psychotherapy research through the evaluation and interpretation of the results of multiple studies. An examination of four widely recognized rehabilitation counseling journals, however, reveals that only one meta-analysis (Bolton & Akridge,…

The term "publication bias" usually refers to the tendency for a greater proportion of statistically significant positive results of experiments to be published and, conversely, a greater proportion of statistically significant negative or null results not to be published. It is widely accepted in the fields of healthcare and psychological…

There are a number of challenges facing those who set out to conduct systematic reviews of intervention effects in the social sciences. These challenges include formulation of a review problem, gathering data about relevant studies and outcomes, analyzing that data, and interpreting the results. The first challenge, formulating a workable review…

Comments on the article by J. S. Hyde (see record 2005-11115-001), in which Hyde provided an overview of the many meta-analyses that have compared men and women on psychological attributes. The current author argues that, despite the strengths of Hyde's study, a major problem with the analysis is its lack of a theoretical basis for considering sex…

The purpose of this article is to provide an alternative interpretation of the National Reading Panel's meta-analysis on phonics instruction. The NRP based its conclusion that phonics instruction was superior to other approaches on the interpretation of mean effect d statistics reported in its meta-analysis. In addition to looking at these d's, we…

Magnitude of effect (ME) statistics are an important alternative to statistical significance. Why methodologists encourage the use of ME indices as interpretation aids is explained, and different types of ME statistics are discussed. The basic concepts underlying effect size measures are reviewed, and how to compute them from published reports…

Using learning theory approaches and definitions of persuasion generated from learning theorists, a study examined the effects of anxiety on message-induced persuasion by using meta-analytic techniques to quantitatively assess the effect of anxiety manipulation in persuasive situations. Studies used in the meta-analysis were similar in context and…

The early and recent history of meta-analysis is outlined. After providing a definition of meta-analysis and listing its major characteristics, developments in statistics and research are described that influenced the formulation of modern meta-analytic methods. Major meta-analytic methods currently in use are described. Statistical and other…

Statistical analysis of many studies on Piaget's stage 4 object concept attempts to synthesize available quantitative data. Factors of this "meta-analysis" include: (1) effects of age; (2) number of A trials; (3) length of delay between hiding and search; (4) number of locations; and (5) visual properties of hiding arrays. Includes…

Presents 40 questions, commentaries, and rebuttals on the generalizability of validities of employment tests of cognitive abilities and meta analysis. (BL)

Examined the relation between a counselor's conceptual level (CL) and the counseling process. Counselors who were matched with a compatible environment performed better than those who were mismatched. Low-CL individuals performed significantly better in more highly structured environments, whereas high-CL individuals showed only a slight…

Meta-analysis, applying data analysis to quantitative summaries of individual studies, is described in terms of procedures and advantages (inclusiveness and examination of interactions across studies) for special education research. (CL)

During the 1990s, the use of meta-analytic methods in educational research has been widespread, and few aspects of education have escaped the meta-analytic revolution. The acceptance has not been complete, however, and several threats to validity remain. Prominent among these are the "normality" problem and the "independence"…

The Mathematics Anxiety Rating Scale (MARS) (F. Richardson and R. Suinn, 1972) was submitted to a reliability generalization analysis to characterize the variability of measurement error in MARS scores across administrations and to identify possible study characteristics that are predictive of reliability variation. The meta-analysis was performed…

Two general categories comprise the various effect size indices that have been proposed for use in meta-analysis: (1) the "d"-type estimator (based on magnitude of mean difference); and (2) the "r"-type estimator (based on magnitude of correlation). In meta-analyses, researchers often must convert these effect size indices to a common metric to…