Statistical significance. A randomized comparative experiment examines whether the drug memantine improves the cognition of patients with moderate to severe Alzheimer’s disease. The subjects receive either memantine or a placebo for 24 weeks. The researchers conclude that on measures of cognition, the memantine group had significantly better outcomes than the placebo group. “Significant” in this conclusion means statistically significant. Explain what “statistically significant” means in the context of this experiment, as if you were speaking to a doctor who knows no statistics.

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