Peer reviewedERIC Number: EJ726368
Record Type: Journal
Publication Date: 2005-Mar-22
Pages: 15
Abstractor: Author
ISBN: N/A
ISSN: ISSN-0022-0973
EISSN: N/A
Comparing Medians: An Overview Plus New Results on Dealing with Heavy-Tailed Distributions
Wilcox, Rand R.
Journal of Experimental Education, v73 n3 p249 Spr 2005
The author provides a review of methods for comparing medians, with an emphasis on comparing two groups. A fairly broad perspective is provided with a summary of the relative merits associated with different strategies. Included as a special case are well-known rank-based techniques. In addition, the author reports new results on comparing the medians of independent groups when sample sizes are small. A concern about virtually all methods for comparing measures of location is that the actual Type I error probability can be well below the nominal level when sampling from heavy-tailed distributions and simultaneously sample sizes are small. This has practical implications about power. Methods are described that correct this problem.
Descriptors: Statistical Analysis, Robustness (Statistics)
Heldref Publications, Helen Dwight Reid Educational Foundation, 1319 Eighteenth Street, NW, Washington, DC 20036-1802. Web site: http://www.heldref.org.
Publication Type: Journal Articles; Reports - Evaluative
Education Level: N/A
Audience: N/A
Language: English
Sponsor: N/A
Authoring Institution: N/A
Grant or Contract Numbers: N/A


