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The most important thing your P-value "doesn't do" is tell you if your underlying model structure is correct. In particular, the actual value of your P-value i
by fiatmoney 12y ago
The most important thing your P-value "doesn't do" is tell you if your underlying model structure is correct.
In particular, the actual value of your P-value is dependent on the underlying distribution, which rather begs the question.
This is the biggest issue with the P-value in the context of social science or commerce.
For physical systems, where God[1] actually makes sure that your distributions, errors, etc are normal, it's pretty awesome.
[1] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Central_limit_theorem
- stdbrouw 12y agoThe normal distribution approximates a series of binomial trials, and in fact that's how Abraham de Moivre originally stumbled upon it: from his study of games of chance. Think Pascal's triangle or google for "bean machine". So you really owe it all to chance.
- IndianAstronaut 12y ago>The most important thing your P-value "doesn't do" is tell you if your underlying model structure is correct. It wasn't meant for that though. It is meant as a value to look at which gives an indication of the probability that what experimental procedure you are performing is causing a differentiation between groups. It is just one indication among many diagnostics to run on a model. >For physical systems, where God[1] actually makes sure that your distributions, errors, etc are normal, it's pretty awesome. Non-parametric tests have been around for quite some time.