Brain asymmetry: facts and fallacies in statistical inference

In a recent article, C. M. Clark, R. Kessler, and R. Margolin (1985, Brain and Cognition, 4, 7-12) argue that standard statistical tests should not be applied to measures of regional cerebral metabolism. They offer no evidence that such measures uniquely escape the mathematical foundations of statistical inference but, instead, merely note the definitional relations among various descriptive and inferential statistics. They falsely claim that these relations invalidate conclusions drawn from statistical tests, and in making this claim, they commit several quite serious logical fallacies. These fallacies are examined.