Application To Independent Test Statistics
Fisher's method combines extreme value probabilities from each test, commonly known as "p-values", into one test statistic (X2) using the formula
where pi is the p-value for the ith hypothesis test. When the p-values tend to be small, the test statistic X2 will be large, which suggests that the null hypotheses are not true for every test.
When all the null hypotheses are true, and the pi (or their corresponding test statistics) are independent, X2 has a chi-squared distribution with 2k degrees of freedom, where k is the number of tests being combined. This fact can be used to determine the p-value for X2.
The distribution of X2 is a chi-squared distribution for the following reason. Under the null hypothesis for test i, the p-value pi follows a uniform distribution on the interval . The negative natural logarithm of a uniformly distributed value follows an exponential distribution. Scaling a value that follows an exponential distribution by a factor of two yields a quantity that follows a chi-squared distribution with two degrees of freedom. Finally, the sum of k independent chi-squared values, each with two degrees of freedom, follows a chi-squared distribution with 2k degrees of freedom.
Read more about this topic: Fisher's Method
Famous quotes containing the words application to, application, independent, test and/or statistics:
“Preaching is the expression of the moral sentiment in application to the duties of life.”
—Ralph Waldo Emerson (1803–1882)
“I conceive that the leading characteristic of the nineteenth century has been the rapid growth of the scientific spirit, the consequent application of scientific methods of investigation to all the problems with which the human mind is occupied, and the correlative rejection of traditional beliefs which have proved their incompetence to bear such investigation.”
—Thomas Henry Huxley (1825–95)
“The real, then, is that which, sooner or later, information and reasoning would finally result in, and which is therefore independent of the vagaries of me and you. Thus, the very origin of the conception of reality shows that this conception essentially involves the notion of a COMMUNITY, without definite limits, and capable of a definite increase of knowledge.”
—Charles Sanders Peirce (1839–1914)
“The test of a given phrase would be: Is it worthy to be immortal? To “make a beeline” for something. That’s worthy of being immortal and is immortal in English idiom. “I guess I’ll split” is not going to be immortal and is excludable, therefore excluded.”
—Robert Fitzgerald (1910–1985)
“He uses statistics as a drunken man uses lamp-posts—for support rather than illumination.”
—Andrew Lang (1844–1912)