Boudewyns P A
J Behav Med. 1985 Sep;8(3):301-7. doi: 10.1007/BF00870316.
Data are presented to support the hypothesis that finger temperature is distributed in a bimodal manner. It is empirically demonstrated that using conventional parametric inferential statistics to evaluate absolute changes in finger temperature is at least misleading and may result in invalid conclusions. Alternative statistical procedures to assess the finger-temperature response are suggested. Also, using a smaller homogeneous sample of subjects, it is shown that lengthy, presession baseline recordings (a standard procedure in temperature research designed to allow subjects to stabilize hand temperature) may serve only to increase the distance between the two modes or distributions. Finally, a suggestion as to why finger temperature is distributed in a bimodal manner is offered and some ideas about how these findings might affect clinical practice are discussed.
文中呈现的数据支持手指温度呈双峰分布的假说。经验证明，使用传统的参数推断统计来评估手指温度的绝对变化至少会产生误导，可能会得出无效的结论。文中提出了评估手指温度反应的替代统计程序。此外，通过使用较小的同质受试者样本表明，长时间的会话前基线记录（温度研究中的标准程序，旨在让受试者手部温度稳定）可能只会增加两种模式或分布之间的距离。最后，文中给出了关于手指温度为何呈双峰分布的一个推测，并讨论了这些发现可能如何影响临床实践的一些想法。
