Statistical Conclusion Validity

Author(s):  
Richard McCleary ◽  
David McDowall ◽  
Bradley J. Bartos

Chapter 6 addresses the sub-category of internal validity defined by Shadish et al., as statistical conclusion validity, or “validity of inferences about the correlation (covariance) between treatment and outcome.” The common threats to statistical conclusion validity can arise, or become plausible through either model misspecification or through hypothesis testing. The risk of a serious model misspecification is inversely proportional to the length of the time series, for example, and so is the risk of mistating the Type I and Type II error rates. Threats to statistical conclusion validity arise from the classical and modern hybrid significance testing structures, the serious threats that weigh heavily in p-value tests are shown to be undefined in Beyesian tests. While the particularly vexing threats raised by modern null hypothesis testing are resolved through the elimination of the modern null hypothesis test, threats to statistical conclusion validity would inevitably persist and new threats would arise.

Author(s):  
D. Brynn Hibbert ◽  
J. Justin Gooding

• To understand the concept of the null hypothesis and the role of Type I and Type II errors. • To test that data are normally distributed and whether a datum is an outlier. • To determine whether there is systematic error in the mean of measurement results. • To perform tests to compare the means of two sets of data.… One of the uses to which data analysis is put is to answer questions about the data, or about the system that the data describes. In the former category are ‘‘is the data normally distributed?’’ and ‘‘are there any outliers in the data?’’ (see the discussions in chapter 1). Questions about the system might be ‘‘is the level of alcohol in the suspect’s blood greater than 0.05 g/100 mL?’’ or ‘‘does the new sensor give the same results as the traditional method?’’ In answering these questions we determine the probability of finding the data given the truth of a stated hypothesis—hence ‘‘hypothesis testing.’’ A hypothesis is a statement that might, or might not, be true. Usually the hypothesis is set up in such a way that it is possible to calculate the probability (P) of the data (or the test statistic calculated from the data) given the hypothesis, and then to make a decision about whether the hypothesis is to be accepted (high P) or rejected (low P). A particular case of a hypothesis test is one that determines whether or not the difference between two values is significant—a significance test. For this case we actually put forward the hypothesis that there is no real difference and the observed difference arises from random effects: it is called the null hypothesis (H<sub>0</sub>). If the probability that the data are consistent with the null hypothesis falls below a predetermined low value (say 0.05 or 0.01), then the hypothesis is rejected at that probability. Therefore, p<0.05 means that if the null hypothesis were true we would find the observed data (or more accurately the value of the statistic, or greater, calculated from the data) in less than 5% of repeated experiments.


2020 ◽  
Vol 18 (1) ◽  
pp. 2-27
Author(s):  
Miodrag M. Lovric

In frequentist statistics, point-null hypothesis testing based on significance tests and confidence intervals are harmonious procedures and lead to the same conclusion. This is not the case in the domain of the Bayesian framework. An inference made about the point-null hypothesis using Bayes factor may lead to an opposite conclusion if it is based on the Bayesian credible interval. Bayesian suggestions to test point-nulls using credible intervals are misleading and should be dismissed. A null hypothesized value may be outside a credible interval but supported by Bayes factor (a Type I conflict), or contrariwise, the null value may be inside a credible interval but not supported by the Bayes factor (Type II conflict). Two computer programs in R have been developed that confirm the existence of a countable infinite number of cases, for which Bayes credible intervals are not compatible with Bayesian hypothesis testing.


Epilepsy ◽  
2011 ◽  
pp. 241-248
Author(s):  
Ralph Andrzejak ◽  
Daniel Chicharro ◽  
Florian Mormann

2016 ◽  
Vol 5 (5) ◽  
pp. 16 ◽  
Author(s):  
Guolong Zhao

To evaluate a drug, statistical significance alone is insufficient and clinical significance is also necessary. This paper explains how to analyze clinical data with considering both statistical and clinical significance. The analysis is practiced by combining a confidence interval under null hypothesis with that under non-null hypothesis. The combination conveys one of the four possible results: (i) both significant, (ii) only significant in the former, (iii) only significant in the latter or (iv) neither significant. The four results constitute a quadripartite procedure. Corresponding tests are mentioned for describing Type I error rates and power. The empirical coverage is exhibited by Monte Carlo simulations. In superiority trials, the four results are interpreted as clinical superiority, statistical superiority, non-superiority and indeterminate respectively. The interpretation is opposite in inferiority trials. The combination poses a deflated Type I error rate, a decreased power and an increased sample size. The four results may helpful for a meticulous evaluation of drugs. Of these, non-superiority is another profile of equivalence and so it can also be used to interpret equivalence. This approach may prepare a convenience for interpreting discordant cases. Nevertheless, a larger data set is usually needed. An example is taken from a real trial in naturally acquired influenza.


1996 ◽  
Vol 1 (1) ◽  
pp. 25-28 ◽  
Author(s):  
Martin A. Weinstock

Background: Accurate understanding of certain basic statistical terms and principles is key to critical appraisal of published literature. Objective: This review describes type I error, type II error, null hypothesis, p value, statistical significance, a, two-tailed and one-tailed tests, effect size, alternate hypothesis, statistical power, β, publication bias, confidence interval, standard error, and standard deviation, while including examples from reports of dermatologic studies. Conclusion: The application of the results of published studies to individual patients should be informed by an understanding of certain basic statistical concepts.


Econometrics ◽  
2019 ◽  
Vol 7 (2) ◽  
pp. 21
Author(s):  
Jae H. Kim ◽  
Andrew P. Robinson

This paper presents a brief review of interval-based hypothesis testing, widely used in bio-statistics, medical science, and psychology, namely, tests for minimum-effect, equivalence, and non-inferiority. We present the methods in the contexts of a one-sample t-test and a test for linear restrictions in a regression. We present applications in testing for market efficiency, validity of asset-pricing models, and persistence of economic time series. We argue that, from the point of view of economics and finance, interval-based hypothesis testing provides more sensible inferential outcomes than those based on point-null hypothesis. We propose that interval-based tests be routinely employed in empirical research in business, as an alternative to point null hypothesis testing, especially in the new era of big data.


1998 ◽  
Vol 55 (9) ◽  
pp. 2127-2140 ◽  
Author(s):  
Brian J Pyper ◽  
Randall M Peterman

Autocorrelation in fish recruitment and environmental data can complicate statistical inference in correlation analyses. To address this problem, researchers often either adjust hypothesis testing procedures (e.g., adjust degrees of freedom) to account for autocorrelation or remove the autocorrelation using prewhitening or first-differencing before analysis. However, the effectiveness of methods that adjust hypothesis testing procedures has not yet been fully explored quantitatively. We therefore compared several adjustment methods via Monte Carlo simulation and found that a modified version of these methods kept Type I error rates near . In contrast, methods that remove autocorrelation control Type I error rates well but may in some circumstances increase Type II error rates (probability of failing to detect some environmental effect) and hence reduce statistical power, in comparison with adjusting the test procedure. Specifically, our Monte Carlo simulations show that prewhitening and especially first-differencing decrease power in the common situations where low-frequency (slowly changing) processes are important sources of covariation in fish recruitment or in environmental variables. Conversely, removing autocorrelation can increase power when low-frequency processes account for only some of the covariation. We therefore recommend that researchers carefully consider the importance of different time scales of variability when analyzing autocorrelated data.


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