Coss Richard G
Department of Psychology, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, USA.
J Comp Psychol. 2009 Nov;123(4):444-6. doi: 10.1037/a0016093.
Hurlbert's conceptions of pseudoreplication, such as the loss of independent replicates with repeated sampling over time and the lack of appropriate spatial interspersion of experimental units to achieve statistical independence, are really theoretical hypotheses that warrant empirical confirmation or disconfirmation. Schank and Koehnle have provided a valuable service to researchers in ecology, conservation biology, and animal behavior using logical argument and repeated Monte Carlo simulations to challenge Hurlbert's theoretical assumptions about statistical independence. Their simulations showed that averaging samples to produce a single datum destroys the information within experimental units and is mathematically equivalent to the treatment level in a nested analysis of variance. Such results counter Hurlbert's argument that pooling is wrong. Rigid thinking about sampling, as engendered by Hurlbert's pseudoreplication arguments, does not promote the exploration of new methodologies and there is something disturbingly inconsistent with the scientific method when journal editors and reviewers adopt Hurlbert's pseudoreplication arguments unquestionably.
赫伯特关于伪重复的概念，比如随着时间的重复抽样导致独立重复样本的丧失，以及缺乏实验单元的适当空间散布以实现统计独立性，实际上都是有待实证证实或证伪的理论假设。尚克和克内尔运用逻辑论证和反复的蒙特卡洛模拟，对赫伯特关于统计独立性的理论假设提出了挑战，这为生态学、保护生物学及动物行为学领域的研究人员提供了一项有价值的服务。他们的模拟表明，将样本平均以产生单个数据会破坏实验单元内的信息，并且在数学上等同于嵌套方差分析中的处理水平。这样的结果与赫伯特认为合并是错误的观点相悖。由赫伯特的伪重复观点所引发的对抽样的僵化思维，不利于新方法的探索，而且当期刊编辑和审稿人毫无质疑地采用赫伯特的伪重复观点时，这与科学方法存在令人不安的不一致之处。
