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  • Hi, I'm Adriene Hill, and Welcome back to Crash Course, Statistics.

  • To recap from last time, P-values tell us howraresomething is.

  • So far, we've been using that information to decide whether or not our hypotheses are

  • reasonable, and using P-values to reject or fail to reject an idea.

  • Today, we're going to explore p-values a little more and talk about the logic of p-values

  • and some of the problems that come up.

  • INTRO

  • Remember, to calculate a p-value, we first assume that the null distribution is the true

  • distribution our sample was taken from.

  • Then we calculate how often we'd see a value that is at least as extreme as our observed value.

  • So in probability terms, the p-value is the probability of getting a sample as or more

  • extreme than ours, given that the null hypothesis is true:

  • So all the values that we see in the sampling distribution are means we could actually get

  • if the null hypothesis was true.

  • For example, let's say the average cat weigh 10lbs (or 4.5 kg).

  • We might want to calculate the probability of getting a group of 30 randomly selected

  • calico cats who have an average weight of 11 lbs (or 5 kg) if calico cats have the same

  • average weight as the whole population of cats.

  • The first issue is if, in real life, there is no connection between two things like fur

  • color and weight --we still might get samples of calicos, mackerel tabbies, or tortoise

  • shells that are different enough to cause us torejectthe null hypothesis that

  • there is no difference.

  • Our alpha tells us how often this will happen.

  • Let's say our hypothesis is that the reaction time of older professional chess players is

  • different from the reaction time of the general population of professional chess players.

  • Even if older chess players are the same as their colleagues, if we ran this study over

  • and over, we'd expect that 5% of the time, we'd mistakenly reject the null if it were true.

  • This is one reason why p-values are pretty controversial in the statistical community right now.

  • Not everyone agrees that a p-value less than 0.05 is sufficient evidence to reject the

  • null hypothesis.

  • In fact, some studies that look at incredibly important things like new medications, have

  • already decided that an alpha of 0.05 isn't low enough.

  • They want p-values lower than 0.01 so that if the null hypothesis is true, they'll

  • only mistakenly reject it 1% of the time.

  • Still others argue that 0.005 is the better cutoff.

  • As you can see, the standard cutoff is arbitrary.

  • Null Hypothesis Significance Testing requires that we draw a line in the sand somewhere,

  • but it isn't clear where.

  • Arguments have been made that we can have different p-value cutoffs--our alphas--depending

  • on the situation, and that scientists should be allowed to justify their reasons for picking

  • a certain cutoff.

  • But on the whole, many fields that regularly use p-values have some sort ofofficial

  • cutoff that they use.

  • The second, related issue is that a p-value tells you howextremeyour data would

  • be if you assume the null hypothesis is true.

  • But when you really think about it...that's not what we want to know.

  • We want to know whether the null is correct, or at least probably correct.

  • In other words, the probability of the null, given that we've seen our data.

  • A p-value of 0.02 in a study on cancer rates in mice tells you that if your new drug didn't

  • work and there was no difference between the cancer rates of mice on and off the drug,

  • then you'd only expect 2% of identically run studies to produce a difference in cancer

  • rates that's as or more extreme than the one you just observed.

  • But we can't use these p-values alone to tell us about the probability of the null

  • being true or false, even though it can be tempting to think we can.

  • One common misinterpretation of a p-value is that it can tell you the probability that

  • the null hypothesis is true.

  • For example, if a random sample of tuna has a 10% higher mercury content than a random

  • sample of mahi-mahi, it would be incorrect to say that a p-value of 0.02 in this case

  • means there's only a 2% chance that the null hypothesis is true.

  • This is an especially tempting misinterpretation because it feels like it maybe should be true,

  • but again, when we calculate our p-value, we've already assumed for a moment that

  • the null hypothesis is true and that any sample differences we see are actually due to just

  • random sampling variation.

  • If our p-value for the chess study was 0.01, that means that we already assumed older chess

  • players were the same as the general population of chess players, so 0.01 can't tell us

  • much about the probability that older chess players are the same as their colleagues.

  • That would be like sayingassuming that grass is green, what's the probability that

  • grass is green?”

  • It just doesn't make much sense.

  • Similarly, p-values can't tell you the probability that you've made an error, given that you

  • rejected the null.

  • Again, this is because p-values don't tell you about the probability of the null being

  • true or false.

  • If you've rejected the null hypothesis--like that drinking orange juice is not associated

  • with higher levels of cavities than drinking coffee--either you did so correctly, because

  • there really is a difference between cavities in OJ and coffee drinkers, or you did so mistakenly

  • because there really is no discernible difference.

  • But p-values--since they assume the null is true--don't tell you how likely either of

  • these options is.

  • Ronald Fisher--one of the first proponents of Null Hypothesis Significance Testing wrote

  • that: “ In general tests of significance are based on hypothetical probabilities calculated

  • from their null hypotheses.

  • They do not generally lead to any probability statements about the real world, but to a

  • rational and well-defined measure of reluctance to the acceptance of the hypotheses they test."

  • In other words, getting a p-value of 0.04 doesn't mean that there's a 4% chance

  • that the null hypothesis is true.

  • The probability we want to know is the opposite conditional probability from what a p-value

  • gives you.

  • We want to know the probability of the null hypothesis given that we got this data.

  • But that's not what we get.

  • From the p-value we get the Probability of the data given the null.

  • For example, we calculate P(data

  • |older chess players are the same as population of chess players ) but we wish we could calculate

  • P(older chess players are the same as population of chess players | data).

  • And while all the same pieces are there, they're not the same.

  • This is made even more clear when you realize the probability of being a child, given that

  • you're at Chuck E Cheese is NOT the same as the probability of being at Chuck E Cheese,

  • given that you're a child.

  • This is one reason why p-values are so perplexing.

  • They don't give us the probability that we truly want.

  • There are some statistical methods that will give you the probability of a hypothesis given

  • the data, and we'll talk about those later.

  • A third issue is that if you reject the null, you still don't have much information about

  • the alternative.

  • When the data is pretty improbable under the null hypothesis, we reject the null and accept

  • the hypothesis that the data came from another distribution that is not the null distribution.

  • We call this the alternative distribution, and the hypothesis that goes with it, the

  • alternative hypothesis.

  • If we reject the null that Mrs. Smith and Mr. Kennedy give the same amount of homework

  • each week, then the alternative is that they don't give the same amount each week.

  • But, we don't know whether the difference is by 30 minutes, 25 minutes...45 minutes.

  • Or, for example,we might want to know whether people who were primed with the wordsElderly,

  • Florida, and Retiredwalked more slowly than the average person who takes 10 minutes

  • to go around our office building, with a standard deviation of 1 minute.

  • We think they will.

  • We take a sample of 50 people, primed them, and set them off.

  • Their mean time is 10.5 minutes, which corresponds to a p-value of 0.00036.

  • We already decided beforehand to make our alpha (or predetermined cutoff) 0.005.

  • So our p-value which is less than 0.005 allows us to reject the null hypothesis...in this

  • case that the people primed with words about being old take a mean of 10 minutes to walk

  • around the building.

  • But what now?

  • While we've rejected the null hypothesis that the primed subjects take a mean of 10 minutes.

  • The alternative hypothesis is just that their mean isn't 10.

  • Our p-values can't tell us anything else.

  • A fourth common issue for p-values is more about how we interpretnon-significant

  • p-values.

  • If our p-value isn't lower than our predetermined cutoff, our alpha, wefail to reject

  • the null hypothesis.

  • Notice that we say fail to reject, not accept.

  • Null hypothesis testing doesn't allow us toacceptor provide evidence that the

  • null is true, instead we've only failed to provide evidence that it's false.

  • Consider this: Your best friend makes the statement, “there are no black swans in China".

  • You think she's wrong, so you go to China and you look at a bunch of swans, and none

  • of them are black.

  • You may, at a certain point, decide that you've seen SO many swans that if there were black

  • swans in China, it's unlikely that you wouldn't have seen one yet.

  • But you can't PROVE there are no black swans until you've seen EVERY.SINGLE.SWAN.

  • Just like you can't prove the null is true--that there's no relationship between two variables,

  • you can only show that you didn't find any evidence it's false.

  • The absence of evidence is not the evidence of absence.

  • failing to rejectthe null hypothesis doesn't mean that there isn't an effect

  • or relationship, it just means we didn't get enough evidence to say there definitely is one.

  • If we looked whether bees produce more honey when it's warm than when it's cold, we

  • could look at some data and calculate a p-value of 0.25.

  • Since we decided beforehand that our alpha would be 0.01, we fail to reject the null

  • hypothesis that bees produce the same amount of honey in hot and cold seasons.

  • But we can't conclude that there is no difference or even that it's unlikely that there's a difference.

  • We can only conclude that we didn't find any evidence of one.

  • Since null hypothesis significance testing is often the first type of statistical inference

  • that people learn, it can seem pretty limiting to know that you can't provide good evidence

  • for the null hypothesis being true.

  • In some cases the null hypothesis might be what you actually want to demonstrate.

  • For example, say there are two groups: people who play a souped up, bells and whistles version

  • of a cognitive training game and those who plan a less fancy version of the game.

  • If these two groups have the same amount of improvement in cognitive abilities (which

  • is our null hypothesis says) that's really interesting.

  • It means that researchers could feel comfortable using whichever version of the game that they want.

  • If playing the fancier, more aesthetically pleasing game made people with strokes, or

  • children with learning differences more likely to play it, researchers would know that's fine.

  • They wouldn't have any concerns that the bells and whistles would detract from the

  • cognitive benefits.

  • P-values can be perplexing.

  • But they give us insight into how to make decisions about data.

  • They also remind us that people's perception of evidence can be arbitrary.

  • What you consider sufficient evidence might not be enough to convince someone else.

  • When you read about the results of scientific studies, you can see the alpha they used and

  • decide if you think it's a stringent enough criteria.

  • More than that, though, we now know what p-values are and how to interpret them.

  • This helps us compare the logic of null hypothesis significance testing with how we normally

  • reason about the world.

  • Thanks for watching, I'll see you next time.

Hi, I'm Adriene Hill, and Welcome back to Crash Course, Statistics.

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P值問題。統計速成班#22 (P-Value Problems: Crash Course Statistics #22)

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    林宜悉 發佈於 2021 年 01 月 14 日
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