Several editorial and institutional interventions in psychology have aimed to improve statistical reporting in journals. These efforts have sought to de-emphasise statistical significance and encourage alternative analyses, especially effect sizes and confidence intervals (CIs), but the interventions to date have had short-lived and superficial impact-if any impact at all. I review some of these interventions in psychology and discuss possible reasons for lack of success. I give an inter-disciplinary context by discussing reform efforts in medicine-in which useful reform has already been achieved-and ecology. I then identify statistics education as the next major challenge for reformers, and report data on students' understanding of CIs, and difficulties they have making appropriate interpretation of CIs. I explain the need for further evidence on which to base improved statistics education in psychology.
The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education