Generalization tests: A terminology that focuses attention on fixed-effect restrictions

A failure to generalize a finding when theoretically-irrelevant procedural changes are made is discussed from the viewpoint of experimental logic (two experiments showed that the finding that stimulus imagery is more facultative than response imagery does not generalize to a paired-associate task of considerable economic importance—children learning the sounds of the letters). It is pointed out that the typical experiment is a weak building block for constructing general theory since it only tests a limited null hypothesis—the specific null whose sampling variance is represented in the error term. It is suggested that “generalization test” be substituted for “significance test” to focus E's attention on his obligation to remove the more serious restrictions on generality in subsequent experiments.