On Wed, 20 Nov 2002, Alan McLean wrote in part: > All the same, if you are using a critical value approach, the > critical values define a significant distance from the parameter. > This is the whole basis of formal hypothesis testing.
It's not clear to me exactly what you mean by "a critical value approach", nor what other approach(es) you might have in mind to contrast it with. But the consequent of that sentence is correct. (Although, if one is being pedantic, it is only true in the standardized metric, not in the metric of the variable observed; in the latter metric "a significant distance from the parameter" would be the c.v. times the standard error of the observed statistic (the sample mean in the cases we've been discussing).) The distance in question, in whichever metric, is of course the SAME distance whether it is conceived as the distance between an hypothesized parameter value and the value of a sample statistic that would be just on the borderline of rejecting vs. not rejecting the specified hypothesis; or as the minimum distance (between the actual observed value of a statistic and the value of a parameter that one might entertain putting into an hypothesis) that would lead to rejection of that (unspecified prior to examining the data) potential hypothesis. -- Don. ----------------------------------------------------------------------- Donald F. Burrill [EMAIL PROTECTED] 56 Sebbins Pond Drive, Bedford, NH 03110 (603) 626-0816 [was: 184 Nashua Road, Bedford, NH 03110 (603) 471-7128] . . ================================================================= Instructions for joining and leaving this list, remarks about the problem of INAPPROPRIATE MESSAGES, and archives are available at: . http://jse.stat.ncsu.edu/ . =================================================================
