Questions tagged [terminology]
Usage and meaning of specific technical words/concepts in statistics.
1,153
questions
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1answer
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Use of expression “statistically significantly predicts” based on in-sample analysis
Suppose one estimates a linear time series model
$$
y_t=\beta_0+\beta_1 x_{t-1}+\varepsilon_t
$$
and finds that $\hat\beta_1>0$ and the $p$-value associated with $\hat\beta_1$ is lower than the ...
1
vote
1answer
26 views
Does the function $H(a) \equiv \mathbb{P}(f_X(X) \geqslant a)$ have a name? (If it doesn't, what is a *good* name for it?)
Given a random variable $X$ with density function $f_X$, we can define the function $H$ as:
$$H(a) \equiv \mathbb{P}(f_X(X) \geqslant a)
\quad \quad
\text{for all } a \geqslant 0.$$
This function ...
2
votes
2answers
173 views
Use of expression “statistically significantly positive”
Suppose one estimates a linear model
$$
y=\beta_0+\beta_1 x+\varepsilon
$$
and finds that $\hat\beta_1>0$ and the $p$-value associated with $\hat\beta_1$ is lower than the chosen significance ...
0
votes
0answers
11 views
What is this kind of chart is this (shows flow of components from one group to another)? [duplicate]
I'd like to know the name for the following type of chart. I see it in the context of interactive charts related to fundraising or polling where components are shown to follow from one group to ...
5
votes
1answer
373 views
Why is Elastic Net called Elastic Net?
What is the etymology of "Elastic Net" in Elastic Net Regularization? Does it have anything to do with the name of "lasso"?
1
vote
0answers
8 views
Reason for Precision and Recall terminology?
Why are the statistical indicators Precision and Recall named that way? Is there a canonical interpretation?
0
votes
0answers
28 views
Support of a function
What is the support of some function $F$ and why do we care about it? Is it of major significance for distribution functions?
38
votes
3answers
4k views
Is there a name for the phenomenon of false positives counterintuitively outstripping true positives
It seems very counter intuitive to many people that a given diagnostic test with very high accuracy (say 99%) can generate massively more false positives than true positives in some situations, namely ...
2
votes
0answers
20 views
“Unselected sample” vs “random sample”
I've just encountered the term "unselected sample" for the first time, which seems to be fairly commonly used in medicine. Example usages:
Climacteric symptoms in an unselected sample of Swedish ...
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0answers
20 views
When is it appropriate to model data as a Stochastic Process? [closed]
I understand the question may be poorly worded, but please bear with me.
I have a background in computer science and mathematics, but never took any upper-level statistics courses. I currently work ...
2
votes
0answers
43 views
Why is the normal distribution called “normal”?
It occurred to me that there is no question on here about the name "normal distribution" yet.
There is this question, about whether to call it normal or Gaussian, but it does not address why it is ...
2
votes
0answers
24 views
What does it mean when a distribution is “INDEXED” by something? [duplicate]
I am doing some reading and am seeing phrases such as the following. For context, I am learning about Bayes Inference and prior/posterior distributions so theta is the parameter:
In such problems, ...
3
votes
3answers
233 views
Word for data set that holds up through outliers?
I'm trying to think of the word that describes a set of data that is large/diverse enough that outliers don't make much of a difference in interpreting the data. For example, the average of $\{4,4,6,3,...
8
votes
2answers
484 views
Is the value of a probability density function for a given input a point, a range, or both?
This post says
A PDF is used to specify the probability of the random variable falling within a particular range of values, as opposed to taking on any one value.
Is it true?
this is the PDF of ...
1
vote
2answers
21 views
“Predict”, “Concurrently Predict”, or “Associated”?
I have heard different things about the appropriate verb to use for a research question for a non-experimental design that utilizes a multiple regression analysis. Three main ones: 1. Predict, 2. ...
12
votes
3answers
724 views
What is joint estimation?
My question is simple as that: what is joint estimation? And what does it mean in the context of regression analysis? How is it done? I wandered in the mighty Internet for quite some time but did not ...
11
votes
2answers
1k views
Is population size a parameter, or sample size a statistic?
The definitions of a parameter and statistic pretty much agree: parameters and statistics are numerical characteristics or numerical summaries of a population and sample, respectively, for a given ...
0
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1answer
63 views
Could someone give an concrete example to illustrate how “empirical distribution” relates to “histogram”?
This question is derived from this one, which is related to empirical distribution.
I did a little bit search and then got this and this, unfortunately, none of them mentions "histogram".
I've ...
0
votes
1answer
9 views
Usage of the term multimodal
Afaik, the usage of multimodal is bifold.
Usage one
In statistics, it is used as a prefix for probability distributions with multiple peaks
Usage two
In general, it is used for concepts or ...
1
vote
1answer
41 views
What is the difference between confidence intervals and confidence bands?
On Wikipedia it mentions states that a confidence band is:
$\Pr(\hat{f}(x) - w(x) < f(x) < \hat{f}(x) + w(x), \text{ for all }x) = 1-\alpha$
Where where $\hat{f}(x)$ is the point ...
0
votes
0answers
20 views
Consider the Iris flower data set, what is the “input space” of this dataset in the context of machine learning?
I am trying to figure out the concept of "input space" in the context of machine learning.
Wikipedia is using this term and does not give a definition or explanation of it.
This post gives a ...
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2answers
35 views
What is a “structured variable”?
My supervisor uses this notion. But I can't find any reference online. He gives an example, $x \in [0,1]^m $.
3
votes
0answers
64 views
Is there a name for a $y=\sqrt[k]{x}$-like data normalization?
I'm normalizing multivariate numeric data that has both negative and positive values. For the sake of the question let's assume a range of e.g. $[-10000,10000]$ with a lot of values in $[-1,1]$. I've ...
1
vote
2answers
34 views
Reporting F1 Scores
I have a question with regard to the proper way to report F1 scores. Say I am comparing two algorithms one with F1 score of 0.71 and the other of 0.82.
Is it correct to say:
"Algorithm 1 obtained an ...
0
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0answers
13 views
Nomeclature question for time-series
tl;dr
Can you help me relate these acronyms to actual algorithms for time-series classification?
Background:
I have been looking around in "http://www.timeseriesclassification.com/" and would like to ...
0
votes
1answer
12 views
Why do we call the set of latent variables a “family” in variational inference?
we posit a family of approximate densities Q. This is a set of densities over the latent
variables. Then, we try to find the member of that family that minimizes the Kullback-Leibler(KL) divergence ...
4
votes
1answer
85 views
Reconciling alternative definitions of parametric vs. nonparametric
In the thread Is there any statistical test that is parametric and non-parametric?, @JohnRos gives an answer saying that
Parametric is used in (at least) two meanings:
A - To declare you ...
3
votes
1answer
50 views
Trial vs realization
In the context of random variables, is "trial" synonymous with "realization"? For example, is a Bernoulli trial one realization of a Bernoulli random variable?
0
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0answers
23 views
What's the name for the [0,1] equivalent of rank or percentile?
I am visualizing some distributions by plotting sorted collections of values, effectively the inverse of a cumulative distribution. The X-axis would thus be the rank. Since the sizes of my ...
3
votes
1answer
82 views
Difference between big data and high dimensional data
What do big data and high dimensional data mean? Is high dimensional data a special case of big data? What are the complications that arise in the analysis of high dimensional and big data each?
0
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0answers
30 views
Using both batches and buckets in neural network
I think I understand what batches serve for in neural network training, especially after reading this question. It has also clear correspondence in libraries like Keras:
...
19
votes
3answers
4k views
What is the name of this plot that has rows with two connected dots?
I've been reading EIA report and this plot captured my attention. I now want to be able to create the same type of plot.
It shows the energy productivity evolution between two years (1990-2015) and ...
1
vote
1answer
39 views
Regression terminology, predictor vs IV vs?
A reviewer has objected to our use of the term "predictor" in a multiple regression analysis using observational data. They argue that because the model is intended to be explanatory and not ...
0
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0answers
20 views
Difference Between Latent Dirichlet Assignment (LDA) and Discrete Linear Analysis (LDA)
I have been studying some concepts of multivariate statistics and came across two models with the same name and very similar, but with different names. It makes me think they are the same. Can anyone ...
23
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10answers
4k views
Best term for made-up data?
I'm writing an example and have made up some data. I want it to be clear to the reader this is not real data, but I also don't want to give the impression of malice, since it just serves as an ...
1
vote
1answer
40 views
Logistic regression: use of the term “prediction”
I would be grateful for any advice on this. I am currently working on an analysis where we are trying to identify what variables would be most useful in predicting a particular binary outcome. We used ...
0
votes
1answer
44 views
What is the opposite of a 'baseline' on a graph?
The minimum value on the axis of a graph is the baseline. What would you call the maximum value? Topline?
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vote
0answers
19 views
Is there a difference between a “binary Poisson variable” and a “Bernoulli random variable”?
I am currently reading this paper which includes some stochastic modeling, and the authors describe a term in their model as being a "binary Poisson variable" which takes the value 1 with (time-...
4
votes
1answer
76 views
Does this discrete distribution have a name/literature?
In my work on discrete urn problems, I have run across a family of discrete distributions with an unusual form, and I am trying to find out if this family of distributions is in the statistical ...
14
votes
2answers
2k views
Does Wolfram Mathworld make a mistake describing a discrete probability distribution with a probability density function?
Usually a probability distribution over discrete variables is described using a probability mass function (PMF):
When working with continuous random variables, we describe probability distributions ...
0
votes
1answer
39 views
Are theoretical probability and relative frequency comparable?
Speaking of probability measure (a number from 0 to 1), textbooks usually describe several interpretations of this number. E.g., Practical Business Statistics by Andrew F. Siegel reads (p. 132):
...
4
votes
1answer
432 views
What does “large grant” mean in machine learning?
Rob Tibshirani, a statistician at Stanford university, created this amusing comparison between machine learning and statistics:
What does "large grant" here mean?
28
votes
4answers
3k views
Extrapolation v. Interpolation
What is the difference between extrapolation and interpolation, and what is the most precise way of using these terms?
For example, I have seen a statement in a paper using interpolation as:
"The ...
14
votes
1answer
1k views
What is the name for the average of the largest and the smallest values in a given data set?
What do you call a statistical mean that is calculated from upper and lower extremes in any given dataset?
For example, if you have a set:
...
0
votes
1answer
35 views
Hinge Loss: what does hinge mean?
This is terminology question, I know what is hinge loss mathematically; but I can't grok what hinge mean in hinge loss. Is it rod, or door hinge, or something else?
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0answers
19 views
What is a “surface” and the “likelihood”?
On Neyman & Pearson, 1933, page 302,
Then the family of surfaces of constant likelihood, $\lambda$,
appropriate for testing a simple hypothesis $H_0$ is defined by
$$ p_0 = \lambda p(\...
5
votes
0answers
99 views
Is there a standard name for this continuous distribution? [closed]
I'm encountering the following PDF of continuous scalar real $X$ with semi-infinite support $]0,+\infty[$:
$$
f_X(x) = C ~ x^{-\alpha} ~_1F_1\left ( a,b;-\frac{d}{x^\beta} \right ),~~~~~~\beta>0;~\...
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0answers
28 views
How is a survival model with constant baseline hazard and time varying covariates called?
The data situation:
Supose in different forests data have been collected. These data include the temperature at different time points, the hours of rain, the type of forest and whether the event (a ...
0
votes
1answer
32 views
Term for observational study in which different cohorts are compared at an equivalent stage of development
I have a dataset tracking certain outcomes in school children, with all grades being sampled every year for a number of years. There are a number of study designs possible with such a dataset. As I ...
0
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0answers
18 views
How would you call matrix of response variables?
Matrix of input variables may be called design matrix with each row to be a single datapoint and each column to be a single feature value.
How would you call matrix of response variables with each ...
