ERIC Number: EJ932854
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2011-Aug
Pages: 6
Abstractor: As Provided
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-1382-4996
EISSN: N/A
Alphas, Betas and Skewy Distributions: Two Ways of Getting the Wrong Answer
Fayers, Peter
Advances in Health Sciences Education, v16 n3 p291-296 Aug 2011
Although many parametric statistical tests are considered to be robust, as recently shown in Methodologist's Corner, it still pays to be circumspect about the assumptions underlying statistical tests. In this paper I show that robustness mainly refers to "[alpha]", the type-I error. If the underlying distribution of data is ignored there can be a major penalty in terms of the "[beta]", the type-II error, representing a large increase in false negative rate or, equivalently, a severe loss of power of the test. (Contains 3 figures.)
Descriptors: Statistical Analysis, Tests, Robustness (Statistics), Statistical Distributions, Error of Measurement, Statistics
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Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Descriptive
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
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