All Questions

16,502 questions
75k views

Algorithms for automatic model selection

I would like to implement an algorithm for automatic model selection. I am thinking of doing stepwise regression but anything will do (it has to be based on linear regressions though). My problem ...
91k views

Is normality testing 'essentially useless'?

A former colleague once argued to me as follows: We usually apply normality tests to the results of processes that, under the null, generate random variables that are only asymptotically or ...
68k views

Can a probability distribution value exceeding 1 be OK?

On the Wikipedia page about naive Bayes classifiers, there is this line: $p(\mathrm{height}|\mathrm{male}) = 1.5789$ (A probability distribution over 1 is OK. It is the area under the bell curve ...
438k views

What is the meaning of p values and t values in statistical tests?

After taking a statistics course and then trying to help fellow students, I noticed one subject that inspires much head-desk banging is interpreting the results of statistical hypothesis tests. It ...
18k views

What should I do when my neural network doesn't learn?

I'm training a neural network but the training loss doesn't decrease. How can I fix this? I'm not asking about overfitting or regularization. I'm asking about how to solve the problem where my ...
467k views

Making sense of principal component analysis, eigenvectors & eigenvalues

In today's pattern recognition class my professor talked about PCA, eigenvectors & eigenvalues. I got the mathematics of it. If I'm asked to find eigenvalues etc. I'll do it correctly like a ...
272k views

Difference between logit and probit models

What is the difference between Logit and Probit model? I'm more interested here in knowing when to use logistic regression, and when to use Probit. If there is any literature which defines it using ...
127k views

How to deal with perfect separation in logistic regression?

If you have a variable which perfectly separates zeroes and ones in target variable, R will yield the following "perfect or quasi perfect separation" warning message: ...
18k views

Why is accuracy not the best measure for assessing classification models?

This is a general question that was asked indirectly multiple times in here, but it lacks a single authoritative answer. It would be great to have a detailed answer to this for the reference. ...
90k views

When is it ok to remove the intercept in a linear regression model?

I am running linear regression models and wondering what the conditions are for removing the intercept term. In comparing results from two different regressions where one has the intercept and the ...
28k views

What if residuals are normally distributed, but y is not?

I've got a weird question. Assume that you have a small sample where the dependent variable that you're going to analyze with a simple linear model is highly left skewed. Thus you assume that $u$ is ...
143k views

How to understand degrees of freedom?

From Wikipedia, there are three interpretations of the degrees of freedom of a statistic: In statistics, the number of degrees of freedom is the number of values in the final calculation of a ...
224k views

When conducting multiple regression, when should you center your predictor variables & when should you standardize them?

In some literature, I have read that a regression with multiple explanatory variables, if in different units, needed to be standardized. (Standardizing consists in subtracting the mean and dividing ...
27k views

Is $R^2$ useful or dangerous?

I was skimming through some lecture notes by Cosma Shalizi (in particular, section 2.1.1 of the second lecture), and was reminded that you can get very low $R^2$ even when you have a completely linear ...
60k views

Does an unbalanced sample matter when doing logistic regression?

Okay, so I think I have a decent enough sample, taking into account the 20:1 rule of thumb: a fairly large sample (N=374) for a total of 7 candidate predictor variables. My problem is the following: ...
9k views

What is meant by a “random variable”?

What do they mean when they say "random variable"?
12k views

Is there a difference between 'controlling for' and 'ignoring' other variables in multiple regression?

The coefficient of an explanatory variable in a multiple regression tells us the relationship of that explanatory variable with the dependent variable. All this, while 'controlling' for the other ...
10k views

Is there an intuitive interpretation of $A^TA$ for a data matrix $A$?

For a given data matrix $A$ (with variables in columns and data points in rows), it seems like $A^TA$ plays an important role in statistics. For example, it is an important part of the analytical ...
173k views

Relationship between SVD and PCA. How to use SVD to perform PCA?

Principal component analysis (PCA) is usually explained via an eigen-decomposition of the covariance matrix. However, it can also be performed via singular value decomposition (SVD) of the data matrix ...
204k views

When (and why) should you take the log of a distribution (of numbers)?

Say I have some historical data e.g., past stock prices, airline ticket price fluctuations, past financial data of the company... Now someone (or some formula) comes along and says "let's take/use ...
59k views

Why does a 95% Confidence Interval (CI) not imply a 95% chance of containing the mean?

It seems that through various related questions here, there is consensus that the "95%" part of what we call a "95% confidence interval" refers to the fact that if we were to exactly replicate our ...
50k views

Maximum Likelihood Estimation (MLE) in layman terms

Could anyone explain to me in detail about maximum likelihood estimation (MLE) in layman's terms? I would like to know the underlying concept before going into mathematical derivation or equation.
27k views

Assessing approximate distribution of data based on a histogram

Suppose I want to see whether my data is exponential based on a histogram (i.e. skewed to the right). Depending on how I group or bin the data, I can get wildly different histograms. One set of ...
290k views

In linear regression, when is it appropriate to use the log of an independent variable instead of the actual values?

Am I looking for a better behaved distribution for the independent variable in question, or to reduce the effect of outliers, or something else?
50k views

Best practice when analysing pre-post treatment-control designs

Imagine the following common design: 100 participants are randomly allocated to either a treatment or a control group the dependent variable is numeric and measured pre- and post- treatment Three ...
100k views

PCA on correlation or covariance?

What are the main differences between performing principal component analysis (PCA) on the correlation matrix and on the covariance matrix? Do they give the same results?
24k views

What is the benefit of breaking up a continuous predictor variable?

I'm wondering what the value is in taking a continuous predictor variable and breaking it up (e.g., into quintiles), before using it in a model. It seems to me that by binning the variable we lose ...
71k views

How to choose between t-test or non-parametric test e.g. Wilcoxon in small samples

Certain hypotheses can be tested using Student's t-test (maybe using Welch's correction for unequal variances in the two-sample case), or by a non-parametric test like the Wilcoxon paired signed rank ...
177k views

How exactly does one “control for other variables”?

Here is the article that motivated this question: Does impatience make us fat? I liked this article, and it nicely demonstrates the concept of “controlling for other variables” (IQ, career, income, ...
64k views

How can a regression be significant yet all predictors be non-significant? [duplicate]

My multiple regression analysis model has a statistically significant F value however all beta values are statistically non-significant. All the regression assumptions are met. No multicollinearity ...
22k views

Is it possible to have a pair of Gaussian random variables for which the joint distribution is not Gaussian?

Somebody asked me this question in a job interview and I replied that their joint distribution is always Gaussian. I thought that I can always write a bivariate Gaussian with their means and variance ...
42k views

Interpretation of log transformed predictor

I'm wondering if it makes a difference in interpretation whether only the dependent, both the dependent and independent, or only the independent variables are log transformed. Consider the case of <...
12k views

Why do statisticians say a non-significant result means “you can't reject the null” as opposed to accepting the null hypothesis?

Traditional statistical tests, like the two sample t-test, focus on trying to eliminate the hypothesis that there is no difference between a function of two independent samples. Then, we choose a ...
181k views

Why square the difference instead of taking the absolute value in standard deviation?

In the definition of standard deviation, why do we have to square the difference from the mean to get the mean (E) and take the square root back at the end? Can't we just simply take the absolute ...
62k views

Including the interaction but not the main effects in a model

Is it ever valid to include a two-way interaction in a model without including the main effects? What if your hypothesis is only about the interaction, do you still need to include the main effects?
26k views

How can adding a 2nd IV make the 1st IV significant?

I have what is probably a simple question, but it is baffling me right now, so I am hoping you can help me out. I have a least squares regression model, with one independent variable and one ...
33k views

What is a complete list of the usual assumptions for linear regression?

What are the usual assumptions for linear regression? Do they include: a linear relationship between the independent and dependent variable independent errors normal distribution of errors ...
220k views

How to interpret a QQ plot

I am working with a small dataset (21 observations) and have the following normal QQ plot in R: Seeing that the plot does not support normality, what could I infer about the underlying distribution? ...
29k views

How to interpret type I, type II, and type III ANOVA and MANOVA?

My primary question is how to interpret the output (coefficients, F, P) when conducting a Type I (sequential) ANOVA? My specific research problem is a bit more complex, so I will break my example ...
4k views

Goodness of fit and which model to choose linear regression or Poisson

I need some advice regarding two main dilemmas in my research, which is a case study of 3 big pharmaceuticals and innovation. Number of patents per year is the dependent variable. My questions are ...
20k views

Interpretation of simple predictions to odds ratios in logistic regression

I'm somewhat new to using logistic regression, and a bit confused by a discrepancy between my interpretations of the following values which I thought would be the same: exponentiated beta values ...
244k views

What is the difference between “likelihood” and “probability”?

The wikipedia page claims that likelihood and probability are distinct concepts. In non-technical parlance, "likelihood" is usually a synonym for "probability," but in statistical usage there is a ...
9k views

Principled way of collapsing categorical variables with many levels?

What techniques are available for collapsing (or pooling) many categories to a few, for the purpose of using them as an input (predictor) in a statistical model? Consider a variable like college ...
414k views

What is the difference between fixed effect, random effect and mixed effect models?

In simple terms, how would you explain (perhaps with simple examples) the difference between fixed effect, random effect and mixed effect models?
59k views

R's lmer cheat sheet

There's a lot of discussion going on on this forum about the proper way to specify various hierarchical models using lmer. I thought it would be great to have all ...
200k views

What are the differences between Factor Analysis and Principal Component Analysis?

It seems that a number of the statistical packages that I use wrap these two concepts together. However, I'm wondering if there are different assumptions or data 'formalities' that must be true to use ...
15k views

How to select a clustering method? How to validate a cluster solution (to warrant the method choice)?

One of the biggest issue with cluster analysis is that we may happen to have to derive different conclusion when base on different clustering methods used (including different linkage methods in ...
24k views

Does the sign of scores or of loadings in PCA or FA have a meaning? May I reverse the sign?

I performed principal component analysis (PCA) with R using two different functions (prcomp and princomp) and observed that the ...