Date:         Sun, 27 Aug 2006 02:21:05 -0400
Reply-To:     Rohan Lulham <Rohan@STUDENT.USYD.EDU.AU>
Sender:       "SPSSX(r) Discussion" <SPSSX-L@LISTSERV.UGA.EDU>
From:         Rohan Lulham <Rohan@STUDENT.USYD.EDU.AU>
Subject:      "significantly" not significant

Hello

This maybe be a naive question, but was wondering how to test if the
difference between to means are significantly similar (e.g. "significantly"
not significant differences). For example being able to say with 95%
confidence that the two means are similar or the same based on the results
of a test. It is very basic question, but rarely talked about were most
research traditions are predominantly looking for differences.

Can the probability value of say an ANOVA test be used so that a p value
= .95 would indicate 95% confidence they are similar? I am thinking due to
some underlying statistical theory to the approach this is not appropriate,
but am not quite sure.

Is there another way to set up an anlysis that can test for similarity
between two means, or distributions?

Thanks for time

Rohan