On Wed, 21 Nov 2001 10:24:54 -0600, Bill Jefferys <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote:
> In article <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>, > [EMAIL PROTECTED] (Dennis Roberts) wrote: > > #on this near holiday ... at least in the usa ... i wonder if you might > #consider for a moment: > # > #what is the SINGLE most valuable concept/procedure/skill (just one!) ... > #that you would think is most important when it comes to passing along to > #students studying "inferential statistics" > # > #what i am mainly looking for would be answers like: > # > #the notion of ________ > # > #being able to do ______ > > I'd say "the notion of inverse probability", but of course that's > because of where I am coming from :-) > I'd say, being able to re-frame the researcher's fuzzy curiosity as a "testable hypothesis" -- I think *that* is where you get the probability that is to be inverted. Good hypothesizing would not be so valuable except that it is rare. And there are so many people who are close to it, and need it. So it ought to be valuable, as a commodity in demand. As a commodity, at least, "the notion of inverse probability" is less valuable because it is out of reach. It is of concern, I think, to the people who have finally achieved a p-value, and wonder what to do next. (Actually, I don't have a quick opinion, but I thought Promoting Tests was a good way to pull Dennis's leg.) -- Rich Ulrich, [EMAIL PROTECTED] http://www.pitt.edu/~wpilib/index.html ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list and remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES are available at http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ =================================================================
