Monthly Archives: May 2017

Allan Birnbaum: Foundations of Probability and Statistics (27 May 1923 – 1 July 1976)

Posted on May 27, 2017 by Mayo
27 May 1923-1 July 1976

27 May 1923-1 July 1976

Today is Allan Birnbaum’s birthday. In honor of his birthday, I’m posting the articles in the Synthese volume that was dedicated to his memory in 1977. The editors describe it as their way of  “paying homage to Professor Birnbaum’s penetrating and stimulating work on the foundations of statistics”. I paste a few snippets from the articles by Giere and Birnbaum. If you’re interested in statistical foundations, and are unfamiliar with Birnbaum, here’s a chance to catch up. (Even if you are, you may be unaware of some of these key papers.)

HAPPY BIRTHDAY ALLAN!

Synthese Volume 36, No. 1 Sept 1977: Foundations of Probability and Statistics, Part I

Editorial Introduction:

This special issue of Synthese on the foundations of probability and statistics is dedicated to the memory of Professor Allan Birnbaum. Professor Birnbaum’s essay ‘The Neyman-Pearson Theory as Decision Theory; and as Inference Theory; with a Criticism of the Lindley-Savage Argument for Bayesian Theory’ was received by the editors of Synthese in October, 1975, and a decision was made to publish a special symposium consisting of this paper together with several invited comments and related papers. The sad news about Professor Birnbaum’s death reached us in the summer of 1976, but the editorial project could nevertheless be completed according to the original plan. By publishing this special issue we wish to pay homage to Professor Birnbaum’s penetrating and stimulating work on the foundations of statistics. We are grateful to Professor Ronald Giere who wrote an introductory essay on Professor Birnbaum’s concept of statistical evidence and who compiled a list of Professor Birnbaum’s publications.

THE EDITORS

Continue reading →

Categories: Birnbaum, Likelihood Principle, Statistics, strong likelihood principle | Tags:

Frequentstein’s Bride: What’s wrong with using (1 – β)/α as a measure of evidence against the null?

Posted on May 23, 2017 by Mayo
Slide1

.

ONE YEAR AGO: …and growing more relevant all the time. Rather than leak any of my new book*, I reblog some earlier posts, even if they’re a bit scruffy. This was first blogged here (with a slightly different title). It’s married to posts on “the P-values overstate the evidence against the null fallacy”, such as this, and is wedded to this one on “How to Tell What’s True About Power if You’re Practicing within the Frequentist Tribe”. 

In their “Comment: A Simple Alternative to p-values,” (on the ASA P-value document), Benjamin and Berger (2016) recommend researchers report a pre-data Rejection Ratio:

It is the probability of rejection when the alternative hypothesis is true, divided by the probability of rejection when the null hypothesis is true, i.e., the ratio of the power of the experiment to the Type I error of the experiment. The rejection ratio has a straightforward interpretation as quantifying the strength of evidence about the alternative hypothesis relative to the null hypothesis conveyed by the experimental result being statistically significant. (Benjamin and Berger 2016, p. 1)

Continue reading →

Categories: Bayesian/frequentist, fallacy of rejection, J. Berger, power, S. Senn

3 YEARS AGO (APRIL 2014): MEMORY LANE

Posted on May 15, 2017 by Mayo
3 years ago...

3 years ago…

MONTHLY MEMORY LANE: 3 years ago: April 2014. I mark in red three posts from each month that seem most apt for general background on key issues in this blog, excluding those reblogged recently[1], and in green up to 4 others I’d recommend[2].  Posts that are part of a “unit” or a group count as one. For this month, I’ll include all the 6334 seminars as “one”.

April 2014

  • (4/1) April Fool’s. Skeptical and enthusiastic Bayesian priors for beliefs about insane asylum renovations at Dept of Homeland Security: I’m skeptical and unenthusiastic
  • (4/3) Self-referential blogpost (conditionally accepted*)
  • (4/5) Who is allowed to cheat? I.J. Good and that after dinner comedy hour. . ..
     
  • (4/6) Phil6334: Duhem’s Problem, highly probable vs highly probed; Day #9 Slides
  • (4/8) “Out Damned Pseudoscience: Non-significant results are the new ‘Significant’ results!” (update)
  • (4/12) “Murder or Coincidence?” Statistical Error in Court: Richard Gill (TEDx video)
  • (4/14) Phil6334: Notes on Bayesian Inference: Day #11 Slides
  • (4/16) A. Spanos: Jerzy Neyman and his Enduring Legacy
  • (4/17) Duality: Confidence intervals and the severity of tests
  • (4/19) Getting Credit (or blame) for Something You Didn’t Do (BP oil spill)
  • (4/21) Phil 6334: Foundations of statistics and its consequences: Day#12
  • (4/23) Phil 6334 Visitor: S. Stanley Young, “Statistics and Scientific Integrity”
  • (4/26) Reliability and Reproducibility: Fraudulent p-values through multiple testing (and other biases): S. Stanley Young (Phil 6334: Day #13)
  • (4/30) Able Stats Elba: 3 Palindrome nominees for April! (rejected post)

 

[1] Monthly memory lanes began at the blog’s 3-year anniversary in Sept, 2014.

[2] New Rule, July 30,2016, March 30,2017 (moved to 4) -very convenient way to allow data-dependent choices.

Save

Save

Save

Save

Save

Categories: 3-year memory lane, Statistics

How to tell what’s true about power if you’re practicing within the error-statistical tribe

Posted on May 8, 2017 by Mayo
two_pink_clouds

.

This is a modified reblog of an earlier post, since I keep seeing papers that confuse this.

Suppose you are reading about a result x  that is just statistically significant at level α (i.e., P-value = α) in a one-sided test T+ of the mean of a Normal distribution with n iid samples, and (for simplicity) known σ:   H0: µ ≤  0 against H1: µ >  0. 

I have heard some people say:

A. If the test’s power to detect alternative µ’ is very low, then the just statistically significant x is poor evidence of a discrepancy (from the null) corresponding to µ’.  (i.e., there’s poor evidence that  µ > µ’ ).*See point on language in notes.

They will generally also hold that if POW(µ’) is reasonably high (at least .5), then the inference to µ > µ’ is warranted, or at least not problematic.

I have heard other people say:

B. If the test’s power to detect alternative µ’ is very low, then the just statistically significant x is good evidence of a discrepancy (from the null) corresponding to µ’ (i.e., there’s good evidence that  µ > µ’).

They will generally also hold that if POW(µ’) is reasonably high (at least .5), then the inference to µ > µ’ is unwarranted.

Which is correct, from the perspective of the (error statistical) philosophy, within which power and associated tests are defined? Continue reading →

Categories: power, reforming the reformers

“Fusion-Confusion?” My Discussion of Nancy Reid: “BFF Four- Are we Converging?”

Posted on May 2, 2017 by Mayo

.

Here are the slides from my discussion of Nancy Reid today at BFF4: The Fourth Bayesian, Fiducial, and Frequentist Workshop: May 1-3, 2017 (hosted by Harvard University)

Categories: Bayesian/frequentist, C.S. Peirce, confirmation theory, fiducial probability, Fisher, law of likelihood, Popper | Tags:

Blog at WordPress.com.