experiment-wise alpha level

experiment-wise alpha level

the significance level (i.e., the acceptable risk of making a Type I error) that is established by a researcher for a set of multiple comparisons and statistical tests. It is often set at the conventional level of .05; by setting the alpha for individual tests (the testwise alpha level) at a lower rate (e.g., .01), it can be ensured that the whole set of tests does not produce error greater than the desired experiment-wise level.