In that case, since Fisher didn't bother to enlighten us as to the meaning of z, I have a perfectly logical (which, in all things etymological, is synonymous with "wrong") explanation you can feel free to hand out to anyone who asks (please don't give me credit). It is called the z-distribution, short for the "zero distribution", since 0 is the mean, median and mode of the distribution. This explanation has the advantage of being face valid and, evidently, unless deeper research finds additional information, irrefutable.
Rick Dr. Rick Froman, Chair Division of Humanities and Social Sciences Professor of Psychology John Brown University 2000 W. University Siloam Springs, AR 72761 [EMAIL PROTECTED] (479) 524-7295 http://www.jbu.edu/academics/hss/faculty/rfroman.asp "Pete, it's a fool that looks for logic in the chambers of the human heart." - Ulysses Everett McGill -----Original Message----- From: Blaine Peden [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Wednesday, October 03, 2007 1:32 PM To: Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS) Subject: Re: [tips] History of z-scores Hello Doug here is an answer to your question (see below) provided by some kindly statisticians blaine From: Richard Scheaffer [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] Sent: Monday, October 01, 2007 7:18 PM To: Applebaugh, Gwendolyn N. Subject: Re: [tips] History of z-scores On the other hand, you might try these references. It seems that Fisher never gave a good reason as to why he called this statistic z. Dick The terms z and the z DISTRIBUTION were introduced by R. A. Fisher in "On a Distribution Yielding the Error Functions of Several well Known Statistics" <http://www.library.adelaide.edu.au/digitised/fisher/36.pdf> , Proceedings of the International Mathematics Congress, Toronto (1924). Fisher's development of the analysis of variance in this paper and in his book Statistical Methods for Research Workers <http://psychclassics.yorku.ca/Fisher/Methods/index.htm> (1925) was based on the z distribution. Fisher's z is related to the modern F by z = ยจ ln F [See http://members.aol.com/jeff570/z.html and http://digital.library.adelaide.edu.au/coll/special//fisher/36.pdf] Dick On 10/1/07 7:43 PM, "Richard Scheaffer" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> wrote: > I'm sorry to say that I do not know the answer to this, but you might find > it > in the Oxford Dictionary of Statistical Terms if you can locate a copy in > a > library. > > Dick Scheaffer ----- Original Message ----- From: "Wallen, Douglas J" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> To: "Teaching in the Psychological Sciences (TIPS)" <[email protected]> Sent: Wednesday, September 26, 2007 11:19 AM Subject: [tips] History of z-scores Hello all, I have wondered occasionally why z-scores were named "z" and who named them. I have done some browsing for the information but have not yet located it. Does anyone have a reference or knowledge of the z-score's origins? Thanks, Douglas Wallen Psychology Department, AH 23 Minnesota State University, Mankato Mankato, MN 56001 E-mail: [EMAIL PROTECTED] Phone: (507) 389-5818 --- --- ---
