A Comparison Of Difference Score And Pre-Test Post-Test Repeated Measures ANOVA: Implications For Research In Management Information Systems

Abstract

Various forms of the pretest-posttest design are extensively used in Management Information Systems (MIS) research.  There is a widespread misconception among MIS researchers regarding the equivalence of the difference score and pretest-posttest repeated measures ANOVA.  Several important implications of the equivalence are presented which concern the interpretation of interaction effects, the test of normality, the test of equality of variance, and the experimentwise Type I error rate.