The goal of this book is to help students develop skills of scientific inferences by the use of what Anderson calls "the experimental pyramid." He does not place the usual emphasis on null hypothesis testing, and also de-emphasizes computational formulas

"...Anderson's latest book is truly remarkable. It is a graduate level text with the first 12 chapters covering core principles and the remaining 9 chapters serving as an excellent reference on numerous statistical methods and design issues....The book captivates your attention as topics are addressed from a perspective you've never entertained when studying statistics and experimental design."
—Air Force Research Laboratory-Science and Technology

"Unlike most statistics texts, this one strives to be both educational and polemical--the author wants most graduate programs teaching statistics to be more empirically based (no new claim) so that future psychologists will acquire sounder research judgment. Novelty lies, however, in the integrated approach Anderson offers for developing such judgment....This book is clearly the culmination of a career devoted to rigorous reliance on the experimental method, meticulous and thoughtful planning of research, and a delight in solving cognitive-behavioral puzzles."
—Contemporary Psychology