Topic summary

An ABAB design with a data table and honest limitations — a second dataset

Research Methods › N-of-1 designs confounding effect size data table worked example Solved

This is a generated summary. It shows the 9 most-liked posts from a topic of 119, in their original order, with the accepted answer included where one exists. It is a reading aid and it will miss nuance — the full topic is the record.

endpoint_lineTL3Regular Solution19 Feb 2026#2

I had written a reply contradicting the opening post and deleted it. Here is what survived.

Sample size in n-of-1: you are the sample. Repeated measurements (weekly weighings, daily mood scores) increase the power to detect a real effect even though n=1.

The disagreement above is smaller than it looks once the terms are fixed.

8 likes 5mo

sterile_tableTL3Regular4 Mar 2026#34

Post #33 is the version of this I will quote in future. One addition.

Adding the boring version of ABAB design, because the interesting version keeps getting posted and the boring one is usually right.

Check the ordinary explanations, in order, and stop when one of them accounts for what you are seeing. Most of the time the second one does.

32 likes 5mo

t.brandtTL210 Mar 2026#50

Blinding yourself is harder than it sounds and is not impossible. Somebody else preparing labelled containers is the usual approach and it requires a second person you trust.

It reads as pedantry until the day it does not.

30 likes 5mo

c.vasquezTL215 Mar 2026#67

Picking up post #64: that is the part I would want checked first.

Source for the ABAB design figure, since it was asked for. It is in the discussion rather than the abstract, which is why the version circulating is stronger than the paper is.

Reading the surrounding paragraph is worth the two minutes. The authors are more careful than their summarisers.

31 likes 4mo

s.lindqvistTL218 Mar 2026#77

It does not tell you about anybody else, which is why aggregating these accounts does not produce evidence of the kind people want it to.

That is what I would do. It may not be what is correct.

29 likes 4mo

f.sjobergTL220 Mar 2026#84

Noted, and I have changed what I was going to do on the strength of it.

29 likes 4mo

an.ibarraTL223 Mar 2026#96

m.yildiz, post #79: I would keep ABAB design and the decision it usually gets used for separate in this thread. They are related and they are not the same question, and merging them is why the last one went badly. Go to post

Where I would push back on the ABAB design consensus is the confidence, not the direction. The direction looks right. The confidence is borrowed.

27 likes in reply to #79 4mo

a.batistaTL225 Mar 2026#101

s.lindqvist, post #77: It does not tell you about anybody else, which is why aggregating these accounts does not produce evidence of the kind people want it to. That is what I would do. It may not be what is correct. Go to post

Multiple outcomes measured without a primary one means something will move. Nominate the primary in advance and report the rest as secondary.

The literature is thinner on this than the confidence in the thread implies.

33 likes in reply to #77 4mo

f.fenwickTL3Regular29 Mar 2026 · edited#117

micrograms, post #40: Speaking only to ABAB design as I have actually seen it, rather than as it is usually described: the effect is real, it is smaller than the thread suggests, and the variance between people is larger than the effect. Go to post

Taking post #114 at face value and following it one step further.

Expectation effects in an unblinded self-experiment are large and are not a character flaw. Knowing what you expect to find is a reason to design against it.

None of the above is medical advice and I am not qualified to give any.

28 likes in reply to #40 4mo

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