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Re: two questions - Mathematica's statistical capacities

  • To: mathgroup at smc.vnet.net
  • Subject: [mg116387] Re: two questions - Mathematica's statistical capacities
  • From: Andy <andyr at wolfram.com>
  • Date: Sat, 12 Feb 2011 05:22:00 -0500 (EST)
  • References: <201102110919.EAA08095@smc.vnet.net>

On 2/11/2011 3:19 AM, Francisco Gutierrez wrote:
> Dear Group:
> Mathematica's statistical capacities have been enhanced in the last versions. However, I have two questions:
>
> a. Has anybody developed code for doing multi-level regressions in Mathematica? If yes, where can it be found?
>
> b. A simple but important command, MeanDifferenceTest was made obsolete. However, it was quite nice. It still works, but Mathematica informs it has been "superseded". Furthermore, the commands that are supposed to replace it, like LocationEquivalenceTest, seem inferior, and produce different results. How to interpret such differences? Anyway I hope MeanDifferenceTest is not wiped from the surface of the earth!
>
> Best,
> Francisco
>
>
>
>
MeanDifferenceTest has been replaced by a collection of tests including 
LocationEquivalenceTest, LocationTest, and a number of individual named 
tests such as SignTest, SignedRankTest, TTest, and ZTest.  
LocationEquivalenceTest is designed primarily to test for equivalence in 
means for 3 or more populations and so isn't likely to give the results 
you are wanting compared to MeanDifferenceTest. LocationTest contains 
many more tests (both nonparametric and parametric) and automates 
choosing an appropriate one.

  If you are really wanting to perform what MeanDifferenceTest does you 
should use either TTest, or ZTest.

Some of the examples in MeanDifferenceTest are a bit difficult to 
replicate because of the underlying assumptions of the test. For the 
first basic example we have to force TTest to use Satterthwaite degrees 
of freedom. Also, the p-value is one-sided by default in 
MeanDifferenceTest. We now return a two-sided value by default and allow 
control over the direction.

The first example in MeanDifferenceTest is one of the hardest to 
replicate...

In[2]:= MeanDifferenceTest[{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5, 8}, 0]

Out[2]= OneSidedPValue -> 0.00879997

Notice that the degrees of freedom default to 9 (not the Satterthwaite 
degrees of freedom..)

In[46]:= TTest[{{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5,
    8}}, 0, "DegreesOfFreedom"]

Out[46]= 9

This is because the variances of the two populations were not detected 
to be significantly different from one another at the default 
significance level...

In[40]:= VarianceEquivalenceTest[{{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5,
    8}}]

Out[40]= 0.7641

We can force the Satterthwaite degrees of freedom by setting the 
significance level above this value.

In[48]:= TTest[{{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5,
    8}}, 0, "DegreesOfFreedom", SignificanceLevel -> .8]

Out[48]= 8.9724

With the proper alternative hypothesis setting we reproduce 
MeanDifferenceTest.

In[49]:= TTest[{{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5, 8}}, 0, "PValue",
  AlternativeHypothesis -> "Less", SignificanceLevel -> .8]

Out[49]= 0.00879997

We have to work far less hard to get the example under "EqualVariances" 
since these are detected by default.

In[2]:= MeanDifferenceTest[{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5, 8}, 0,
  EqualVariances -> True]

Out[2]= OneSidedPValue -> 0.00940084

In[51]:= TTest[{{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5, 8}}, 0, "PValue",
  AlternativeHypothesis -> "Less"]

Out[51]= 0.00940084

To assume known variances as in the "KnownVariance" example use ZTest.

In[2]:= MeanDifferenceTest[{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5, 8}, 0,
  KnownVariance -> {1, 3}]

Out[2]= OneSidedPValue -> 7.03827*10^-6

In[54]:= ZTest[{{1, 2, 4, 6, 3}, {4, 10, 6, 8, 5, 8}}, {1, 3}, 0,
  AlternativeHypothesis -> "Less"]

Out[54]= 7.03827*10^-6

The reporting features offered by MeanDifferenceTest have not been 
completely replicated by design. You can still automatically generate 
nice test summary tables and all of the information for constructing the 
old table is readily available by extracting properties from the 
"HypothesisTestData" object. You can also still get test conclusions as 
strings.

Hope this helps. Any suggestions on improvements are most welcome.

Andy Ross
Wolfram Research


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