When science writers, especially “statistical war correspondents”, contact you to weigh in on some article, they may talk to you until they get something spicy, and then they may or may not include the background context. So a few writers contacted me this past week regarding this article (“Retire Statistical Significance”)–a teaser, I now suppose, to advertise the ASA collection(note) growing out of that conference “A world beyond P ≤ .05” way back in Oct 2017, where I gave a paper*. I jotted down some points, since Richard Harris from NPR needed them immediately, and I had just gotten off a plane when he emailed. He let me follow up with him, which is rare and greatly appreciated. So I streamlined the first set of points, and dropped any points he deemed technical. I sketched the third set for a couple of other journals who contacted me, who may or may not use them. Here’s Harris’ article, which includes a couple of my remarks. Continue reading
Monthly Archives: March 2019
Diary For Statistical War Correspondents on the Latest Ban on Speech
1 Days to Apply for the Summer Seminar in Phil Stat
Go to the website for instructions: SummerSeminarPhilStat.com. 
S. Senn: To infinity and beyond: how big are your data, really? (guest post)
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Stephen Senn
Consultant Statistician
Edinburgh
What is this n you boast about?
Failure to understand components of variation is the source of much mischief. It can lead researchers to overlook that they can be rich in data-points but poor in information. The important thing is always to understand what varies in the data you have, and to what extent your design, and the purpose you have in mind, master it. The result of failing to understand this can be that you mistakenly calculate standard errors of your estimates that are too small because you divide the variance by an n that is too big. In fact, the problems can go further than this, since you may even pick up the wrong covariance and hence use inappropriate regression coefficients to adjust your estimates.
I shall illustrate this point using clinical trials in asthma. Continue reading
Blurbs of 16 Tours: Statistical Inference as Severe Testing: How to Get Beyond the Statistics Wars (SIST)
Statistical Inference as Severe Testing:
How to Get Beyond the Statistics Wars (2018, CUP)
Deborah G. Mayo
Abstract for Book
By disinterring the underlying statistical philosophies this book sets the stage for understanding and finally getting beyond today’s most pressing controversies revolving around statistical methods and irreproducible findings. Statistical Inference as Severe Testing takes the reader on a journey that provides a non-technical “how to” guide for zeroing in on the most influential arguments surrounding commonly used–and abused– statistical methods. The book sets sail with a tool for telling what’s true about statistical controversies: If little if anything has been done to rule out flaws in taking data as evidence for a claim, then that claim has not passed a stringent or severe test. In the severe testing account, probability arises in inference, not to measure degrees of plausibility or belief in hypotheses, but to assess and control how severely tested claims are. Viewing statistical inference as severe testing supplies novel solutions to problems of induction, falsification and demarcating science from pseudoscience, and serves as the linchpin for understanding and getting beyond the statistics wars. The book links philosophical questions about the roles of probability in inference to the concerns of practitioners in psychology, medicine, biology, economics, physics and across the landscape of the natural and social sciences.
Keywords for book:
Severe testing, Bayesian and frequentist debates, Philosophy of statistics, Significance testing controversy, statistics wars, replication crisis, statistical inference, error statistics, Philosophy and history of Neyman, Pearson and Fisherian statistics, Popperian falsification
The Statistics Wars & Their Casualties
LSE PH500 Research Seminar (May 21-June 25, 2020): Controversies in Phil Stat
Summer Seminar 2019 (article)
Experts convene to explore new philosophy of statistics field
Error Statistics Philosophy 