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I am writing an eye tracking paper that involve both "samples" as used in signal theory (e.g "the sampling rate was of 50 samples per second) and statistical samples.

A reviewer is suggesting that I change the terminology to avoid confusion between the two uses of the term sample. What terminology change could I make to meet this request? So far, the only plausible change I could think of was:

  • eye tracking samples would become "data points"
  • statistical samples would remain "samples".
GuillaumeL
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  • "50 measurements per second" would be fine for me, but what about your readers? – Nick Cox Jun 23 '20 at 06:09
  • Could work, but we are already using "measurement" for eye movement measurements, e.g. fixation duration, etc. – GuillaumeL Jun 23 '20 at 17:35
  • Different meanings of "sample" is one of several examples agt https://stats.stackexchange.com/questions/202879/what-misused-statistical-terms-are-worth-correcting/202886#202886 I don't have experience of ambiguity biting hard. You could add a footnote about sample scientific sense and sample statistical sense, if that suits your style and the journal's style. – Nick Cox Jun 23 '20 at 18:39
  • This sounds to me like a kind of panel data sample, but I don't know if that term is common in your field. – dimitriy Jun 23 '20 at 18:45

1 Answers1

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Can you use eye tracking observations?

This way, if you have a single study outcome, you can say things like: For our study outcome, we collected 50 eye tracking observations per second per study subject for a total of 120 seconds, etc.

If you have multiple study outcomes, you can clarify that: For each outcome variable, we collected 50 eye tracking observations per second per study subject for a total of 120 seconds, etc.

Isabella Ghement
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