“trend in the direction of significance”

We also observed a trend in the direction of significance for time needed on the Stroop and number of different psychotropic medication groups (n = 39, r = .31; p = .06).

However, if one or more of the secondary outcomes shows a trend in the direction of significance and/or shows a moderate to large effect size, the number of participants can be expanded in subsequent research to address a specific hypothesis. 2.9.