Extending the CLAST sequential rule to one-way ANOVA under group sampling.

Several studies have demonstrated that the fixed-sample stopping rule (FSR), in which the sample size is determined in advance, is less practical and efficient than are sequential-stopping rules. The composite limited adaptive sequential test (CLAST) is one such sequential-stopping rule. Previous research has shown that CLAST is more efficient in terms of sample size and power than are the FSR and other sequential rules and that it reflects more realistically the practice of experimental psychology researchers. The CLAST rule has been applied only to the t test of mean differences with two matched samples and to the chi-square independence test for twofold contingency tables. The present work extends previous research on the efficiency of CLAST to multiple group statistical tests. Simulation studies were conducted to test the efficiency of the CLAST rule for the one-way ANOVA for fixed effects models. The ANOVA general test and two linear contrasts of multiple comparisons among treatment means are considered. The article also introduces four rules for allocating N observations to J groups under the general null hypothesis and three allocation rules for the linear contrasts. Results show that the CLAST rule is generally more efficient than the FSR in terms of sample size and power for one-way ANOVA tests. However, the allocation rules vary in their optimality and have a differential impact on sample size and power. Thus, selecting an allocation rule depends on the cost of sampling and the intended precision.