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.
The structure of the trial is shown in the table :[citation needed]
| 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]
The Solomon four-group design, developed by Richard Solomon in 1949, was devised to overcome the problem of pretest sensitization.
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.
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The present study is a Monte Carlo demonstration.
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