Solomon four-group design

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Short description: Research method developed by Richard Solomon

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

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

  1. Navarro, Mario; Siegel, Jason T. (2018). "Solomon Four-Group Design". SAGE Publications. https://www.researchgate.net/publication/323412815. 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". Education Resources Information Center. https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED316556.pdf. 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."" 
  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 (JSTOR) 62 (4): 361–376. doi:10.1080/00220973.1994.9944140. ""The present study is a Monte Carlo demonstration."".