Tell me more ×
Cross Validated is a question and answer site for statisticians, data analysts, data miners and data visualization experts. It's 100% free, no registration required.
up vote 6 down vote favorite
2

I need to define what a test of independence is, without the use of heavily statistic terms.

share|improve this question

2 Answers

up vote 2 down vote accepted

I would start by defining what you mean by independence. For example,

If two variables are independent this means that knowing the value of one variable does not tell you anything about the value of the other variable.

Then I would describe the test:

To test for independence we construct a table of values that we would expect to see if the variables were independent. If we observed something "very" different from these expected values, we would conclude that the variables are unlikely to be independent.

share|improve this answer
It rather does not change your knowledge about distribution of other variable. Definition of independence: P(Y|X)=P(Y). We know value of other variable only in rare cases of perfect prediction (correlation equals 1 or -1). – Wojtek Aug 17 '10 at 6:10
up vote 1 down vote

Why don't you take the definition of wikipedia. It's quite short und doesn't use heavily statistic terms.

A test of independence assesses whether paired observations on two variables, expressed in a contingency table, are independent of each other – for example, whether people from different regions differ in the frequency with which they report that they support a political candidate.

share|improve this answer

Your Answer

 
discard

By posting your answer, you agree to the privacy policy and terms of service.

Not the answer you're looking for? Browse other questions tagged or ask your own question.