Paul R. Yarnold
Optimal Data Analysis, LLC
Prior empirical comparison of the timeline follow-back (TLFB, dummy-coded as 1) vs. Drinker Profile (DP, coded as 2) methods of quantifying alcohol consumption in treatment research reported pairwise sign tests comparing these methods separately on four categorical ordinal outcomes: abstinent=1; light=2; moderate=3; heavy=4. It was concluded: “The direction of differences for the abstinent and medium categories approached significance (with unprotected alpha criterion at .05) with the DP more often yielding higher estimates of abstinent days and lower estimates of medium days. The DP significantly more often yielded lower estimates of light days” (p. 27). This example is used to illustrate the use of novometric analysis to disentangle complete sets of sign-test-based pairwise comparison outcomes, including ties.
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