The purpose of this paper is to examine the role of factorial design methods for research on reading and reading instruction. I will begin with a brief sketch of the historical context behind the present state of affairs in experimental research on reading. Next comes a section separating the concepts of “experiment” and “design”—the remainder of the paper focuses on the topic of factorial design. While my remarks emphasize applications to reading research, it will be obvious that the issues hold for most areas of the social sciences.
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