Testing

  • Lyric ©2005 Lawrence Mark Lesser;
    May sing to tune of "Row, Row, Row Your Boat"

    It is key to know
    What p-value means --

    It's the chance
    (with the null)
    you obtain
    data that's

    At least that extreme!

  • Lyric copyright by Kate McFarland
    may sing to tune of "I Will Find You" (Peter Hammill)

    Trapped by your habit when you must compare,
    Two-sample t-tests that blind you
    I have a better way;
    each observation pair,
    I'll assess, greater/less; I will find U.

    (For) independent samples X and Y,
    Mann-Whitney's test, I'll remind you,
    Is so simple--add a half for every tie,
    Else just sum, naughts and ones, and you'll find U.

    Far away in a normal test
    You'll find you don't have so much freedom;
    Don't run away to a normal test.

    Don't be afraid should it be unknown
    What distribution's before you.
    Don't be afraid (with) symmetry alone,
    Lose no more, (than) point-one-four, if you find U.

    Far away in a normal test
    Things cannot be much more efficient;
    Don't run away to a normal test...

    Trapped by your habit when you must compare,
    Two-sample t-tests that blind you
    I have a better way;
    each observation pair,
    I'll assess, greater/less; I will find U.

  • Lyric copyright ©2006 by Lawrence Mark Lesser
    may be sung to the tune of "Aquarius" (James Rado, Gerome Ragni, Galt MacDermot)

    When you have qualitative data
    And you need to test goodness of fit
    Or do a test of independence,
    Then this fine tool is it!
    This is the dawning of the age of chi-square for us,
    Age of chi-square for us,
    Chi-square for us!
    Chi-square for us!

    It's the oldest test we use now--
    In nineteen-hundred, Pearson showed us how
    Reasoning with simple rat'os
    yield expected frequencies that go in formula summation
    note degrees of libera-ation:
    chi-square for us, Chi-square for us!

    (repeat first section)

  • Lyric copyright by Marc Coram and Matthew Finkelman
    may sing to the tune of "My Boyfriend's Back" (Robert Feldman, Gerald Goldstein and Richard Gottehre)

    The p-value's low and I'm gonna get it published
    Heh-na, heh-na, it's .05

    The p-value's low and the journal isn't rubbish
    Heh-na, heh-na, it's .05

    Yeah, my paper got accepted
    Null hypothesis rejected
    Heh-na, heh-na, it's .05

    The effect is microscopic but I got four thousand patients
    Heh-na, heh-na, it's .05

    Now people will forget my bad TA evaluations
    Heh-na, heh-na, it's .05

    Yeah, my paper got accepted
    Null hypothesis rejected
    Heh-na, heh-na, it's .05
    Heh-na, heh-na, it's .05
    Heh-na, heh-na, it's .05

  • Lyric copyright by Dennis K. Pearl
    may sing to the tune of "Break on Through (to the other side)" (The Doors)

    You know the tail's to the right
    Root-n divides the s
    Tried the left
    Tried the right
    Test on mu to the other side
    Test on mu to the other side
    Test on mu to the other side, yeah

    We placed our measures here
    valid measures there
    But can you still recall
    Testing just one side
    Test on mu to the other side
    Test on mu to the other side

    Yeah!
    C'mon, yeah

    Both ways reject my null
    Both ways reject my null
    mean was low
    mean was high
    mean was low
    mean was high

    I landed an alternative
    Both ways can give
    Evidence to claim
    The null's a lie
    Test on mu to the other side
    Test on mu to the other side
    Test on mu, oww!
    Oh, yeah!

    Made the mean
    Peak to Peak
    Way to weigh
    Power to Power
    State and negate
    z's the guide
    Test on mu to the other side
    Test on mu to the other side
    Test on mu
    Test on mu
    Test on mu
    Test on mu
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah
    Yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah

  • Lyrics © by Jen Simonds
    may sing to tune of "Oops! ... I Did It Again" (Britney Spears)

    I think I did it again
    I made you believe,
    I had what I need
    Oh, Chuck, I have run a Z-test,
    But that doesn't mean I know what's best
    But to lo-ose my σ, that is just so typically me
    Oh baby baby

    Oops I did it again
    I picked the wrong test
    Got invalid results
    Oh, baby baby
    Oops I ran a two-tailed
    When I wanted just one tail
    For my hypothesis

    You see my problem is this
    I'm running t-tests
    Wishing my groups they were independent
    I cry watching the curve
    'Cause if I reject, I've got nerve
    But to lose degrees of freedom
    That is just so typically me
    Oh, baby, Oh baby baby

    Oops I did it again, I misread the graph
    Where's the interaction?
    Oh, baby, baby
    Oops, are those parallel lines
    And where are the main effects
    Is this even an ANOVA?

    [Dream Sequence]
    Chuck: Britney, Britney, I got these for you.
    Britney: But I thought the old lady archived these down in the basement of the library
    Chuck: I went down and got them for you.
    Britney: Awww, you shouldn't have...
    Chuck: No, you really need these

    Oops I ran a Pearson's for my test
    I tried to correlate categories
    Oops you think that I needed a Χ²
    For my nominal data

    Oops I did it again, rejected the null
    Didn't understand p
    I thought bigger's better
    Oops I misread the "sig."
    On my SPSS output
    I'm not that innocent

    Oops I did it again
    I picked the wrong test, got invalid results
    Oh, baby baby
    Oops I ran a two-way
    When I wanted a three-way
    For my hypothesis.

    Watch the video

  • Lyric and music copyright by Jeff Hale

    You ask a good question and wonder what the answer is.
    If you guess at the answer, that's a hypothesis.
    The scientific method can make you very smart.
    If you want to solve a problem, that's a good place to start.

    chorus :
    Is your hypothesis wrong or right?
    Do a test that will shed some light.
    If your experiment goes as planned.
    You've answered your question with the scientific jam.

    You've collected all the data. Now your searching for a clue.
    You just might want to graph it so you'll have a picture too.
    With careful observations you've really thought it through.
    The answer finally hits you. Now your ready to conclude.

    chorus :
    Is your hypothesis wrong or right?
    Do a test that will shed some light.
    If your experiment goes as planned.
    You've answered your question with the scientific jam.

    bridge
    Make a guess, hypothesize, do a test and experiment.
    Think it through, analyze, then conclude with a great surprise

    Now just in case you made a major breakthrough,
    do the test again just to make sure it's cool.
    Some other science dudes just may want to do your gig
    A repeatable experiment is something they can dig.

    repeat chorus

  • Lyrics copyright by Denise Tran
    may sing to the tune of "Drops of Jupiter (Tell Me)" (Patrick Monahan, Robert Hotchkiss, James Stafford, Scott Underwood, and Charlie Colin)

    Backed by evidence, I've made a new guess
    My alternative hypothesis, hey--
    I thought you said you still loved me too
    But I've rejected this null, it just ain't true, hey--
    Why do I care for you when I've
    Found the p-value is less than point-oh-five, hey-- hey--

    But tell me, is there practical relevance
    To stop reaching out to you?
    Though statistical significance,
    A circumstance unlikely due to chance

    Tells me, I don't mean much to you
    And there's nothing left to do
    Sometimes the difference seems small at best
    Should I run another test?

    Well if p is low, I guess null must go
    Although I'd much prefer Ho to stay--
    But the chances you feel the way I do
    Are under five percent (wish it wasn't true), hey--
    If my results are right, I'm not quite sure
    Perhaps I made a Type I error? hey-- hey--

    But tell me, to stop reaching out to you,
    Is there practical relevance?
    Though statistical significance,
    A circumstance unlikely due to chance

    Tells me, I don't mean that much to you
    And there's nothing left to do
    I feel the difference is small at best
    Maybe I'll run another test?

    Could you imagine no Type I error,
    Saying things are out of place and the feelings are gone
    Even when they're really not

    Could you imagine if p was really high
    And I did not have to question
    The significance of the results
    Or your love for me

    Tell me, does significance mean a thing?
    If there exists another possibility
    I'll need some new hypotheses

    And tell me, is there practical relevance?
    Between results I'd expect from null
    And those I actually got
    Is the difference smaller than I thought?

    Tell me, 'cause I'm not so sure
    If I made a Type I error
    Feelin' so lonely, guess,
    I'll need to make another test

    Maybe I made a Type I error
    Should I still reject Ho?
    Still reject Ho?
    Or maybe I should set my alpha at less than point-oh-five

  • Lyric copyright © by Dennis K Pearl
    May sing to the tune of "Santa Claus is Coming to Town" (John Frederick Coots and Haven Gillespie)

    You better watch error;
    they better be tight.
    Better be normal,
    or it don't work right.
    ANOVA Table's coming to town!

    It's summing those squares,
    And checking 'em twice;
    Variance 'tween or within a slice.
    ANOVA Table's coming to town.
    ANOVA Table's coming to town.
    ANOVA Table's coming to town!

    It sees the data you've been keeping;
    ...but not if they are fake.
    It knows if they're within or between;
    So between for goodness sake!

    Oh - You better watch error;
    they better be tight.
    Better be normal,
    or it don't work right.

    ANOVA Table's coming to town.
    ANOVA Table's coming to town.
    ANOVA Table's coming to town!

  • By Michael Greenacre & Gurdeep Stephens
    Barcelona, Catalonia & Victoria, Canada, March 2015

    Statistics, logistics, cladistics seem to me
    To have a common theme scientifically,
    Economists, biologists, with PhD degrees,
    They all need some proof of their theories.
    A letter is the key, you'll see clearly,
    Not B nor G nor V -- but it's the P !

    There's no values like P-values
    Like no values I know
    Think of something that is not worth proving,
    An hypothesis that everyone calls null,
    If your P is too large to reject it
    Then your experiment is rather dull.

    There's no values like P-values,
    Especially when they are low,
    Don't be sad if your P's over point-O-five,
    Just try again with samples twice the size,
    Everything is possible, just trust in me:
    Put your faith in the P.

    The F test, the Z test, the chi-square and the T
    And other cryptic terminology
    Anova, regression, tests distribution-free,
    They all need some sort of guarantee.
    So if you find a tiny effect size
    The P-value will be a good disguise.

    There's no values like P-values,
    The frequentist's hero,
    When you get that data modeling feeling
    But results you have are not a lot,
    You will need some stats that are appealing
    To show the journals your work is hot!

    There's no values like P-values
    Especially when they're low
    Don't be sad if your P's over point-O-five,
    Just try again with samples twice the size
    Everything is possible, just trust in me:
    Put your faith in the P!

    Check out the Video

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