Encyclopedia > Parametric statistics

  Article Content

Parametric statistics

Parametric inferential statistical methods are mathematical procedures for statistical hypothesis testing which assume that the distributions of the variables being assessed have certain characteristics. Analysis of variance assumes that the underlying distributions are normally distributed and that the variances of the distributions being compared are similar. The Pearson product-moment correlation coefficient assumes normality.

While parametric techniques are robust – that is, they often retain considerable power to detect differences or similarities even when these assumptions are violated – some distributions violate the assumptions so markedly that a non-parametric alternative is more likely to detect a difference or similarity.



All Wikipedia text is available under the terms of the GNU Free Documentation License

 
  Search Encyclopedia

Search over one million articles, find something about almost anything!
 
 
  
  Featured Article
BBC News 24

... of digital television in the UK, satellite viewers were able to view the service. The BBC were initially criticized for the cost of running BBC News 24 channel, ...

 
 
 
This page was created in 43.7 ms