Sense and Nonsense of Statistical Inference: Controversy, Misuse, and Subtlety (Popular Statistics)

✍ Scribed by Charmont Wang

• Publisher: Marcel Dekker, Inc.
• Year: 1992
• Tongue: English
• Leaves: 263
• Series: Popular Statistics volume 6
• Edition: 1
• Category: Library

✦ Synopsis

This volume focuses on the abuse of statistical inference in scientific and statistical literature, as well as in a variety of other sources, presenting examples of misused statistics to show that many scientists and statisticians are unaware of, or unwilling to challenge the chaotic state of statistical practices.;The book: provides examples of ubiquitous statistical tests taken from the biomedical and behavioural sciences, economics and the statistical literature; discusses conflicting views of randomization, emphasizing certain aspects of induction and epistemology; reveals fallacious practices in statistical causal inference, stressing the misuse of regression models and time-series analysis as instant formulas to draw causal relationships; treats constructive uses of statistics, such as a modern version of Fisher's puzzle, Bayesian analysis, Shewhart control chart, descriptive statistics, chi-square test, nonlinear modeling, spectral estimation and Markov processes in quality control.

✦ Table of Contents

Book Cover......Page 1
Title Page......Page 3
Preface......Page 7
CONTENTS......Page 13
I. EXAMPLES: THE t-TEST......Page 19
II. A TWO-STAGE TEST-Of-SIGNifiCANCE......Page 21
III. MORE EXAMPLES: A KOLMOGOROV-SMIRNOV TEST AND SOME DIAGNOSTIC STATISTICS FOR MODEL BUILDING......Page 24
IV. MECHANICAL APPLICATION OF STATISTICAL TESTS......Page 28
V. DATA SNOOPING......Page 29
VI. AN APPRECIATION OF "NON-SIGNIFICANT" RESULTS......Page 30
VIII. TYPE I AND TYPE II ERRORS: FOR GENERAL SCIENTISTS......Page 35
IX. CONCLUDING REMARKS......Page 39
NOTES......Page 40
I. RANDOMNESS OR CHAOS?......Page 44
II. HUME'S PROBLEM......Page 46
III. UNOBSERVABLES, SEMI-UNOBSERVABLES, ANDGRAB SETS......Page 47
IV. IS STATISTICS A SCIENCE?......Page 50
V. GRAB SETS AND QUASI-INFERENTIAL STATISTICS......Page 51
VI. CONCLUDING REMARKS: QUASI· AND PSEUDO·INFERENTIAL STATISTICS......Page 55
I. INTRODUCTION......Page 58
II. SENSE AND NONSENSE IN CAUSAL INFERENCE: EXAMPLES......Page 59
III. RUBIN'S MODEL AND CONTROLLED EXPERIMENTS......Page 67
IV. RUBIN'S MODEL AND OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES......Page 70
V. CAUSAL INFERENCE IN SAMPLE SURVEY AND OTHER OBSERVATIONAL STUDIES......Page 75
VI. CAUSES, INDICATORS, AND LATENT VARIABLES......Page 81
I. DISCOVERING CAUSAL STRUCTURE: SCIENCE NOW CAN BE EASILY CLONED......Page 90
II. REGRESSION AND TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS:SCIENCE OR LUNACY? (Part I)......Page 96
III. REGRESSION AND TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS: SCIENCE OR LUNACY? (Part II)......Page 98
IV. REGRESSION AND TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS: SCIENCE OR LUNACY? (Part III)......Page 103
V. STATISTICAL CORRELATION VERSUS PHYSICAL
CAUSATION......Page 105
NOTES......Page 112
Intermission......Page 117
I. THE SORRY STATE OF STATISTICAL EVALUATION: A CASE STUDY IN EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH......Page 121
II. MODELING INTERACTION EFFECTS: A CASE STUDY FROM THE SOCIAL-BEHAVIORAL SCIENCES......Page 135
NOTES......Page 152
6. On Objectivity, Subjectivity, and Probability......Page 155
I. STATISTICAL "JUSTIFICATION" OF SCIENTIFIC KNOWLEDGE AND SCIENTIFIC PHILOSOPHY......Page 156
II. CLASSICAL PROBABILITY, COMMON SENSE, AND A STRANGE VIEW OF NATURE......Page 164
III. INTUITION AND SUBJECTIVE KNOWLEDGE INACTION: THE BAYES THEOREM (AND ITS MISUSE)......Page 171
IV . BAYESIAN TIME-SERIES ANALYSIS AND E.T. (EXTRA TIME-SERIES) JUDGMENT......Page 178
V. A PURSUIT OF INFORMATION BEYOND THE DATA
IN RANDOMIZED AND NONRANDOMIZED STUDIES......Page 184
VI. WOMEN AND LOVE: A CASE STUDY IN QUALITATIVE/QUANTITATIVE ANALYSIS......Page 190
NOTES......Page 198
I. OBJECTIVITY VERSUS RELIABILITY......Page 203
II. ORDER WITHIN CHAOS: HEARTBEATS, BRAINWAVES, SIMULATED ANNEALING, AND THE FIDDLING OF A SYSTEM......Page 206
NOTES......Page 220
8. The Riddle of the Ubiquitous Statistics......Page 223
I. INFORMATION AND MISINFORMATION......Page 225
II. STATISTICAL QUALITY CONTROL AND THE CONFLICTING TEACHINGS OF Q. C. GURUS......Page 230
NOTES......Page 247
Epilog: Toward a New Perspective on......Page 251
NOTES......Page 255
INDEX......Page 257