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Multiverse Analysis
Multiverse analysis is a scientific method that specifies and then runs a set of plausible alternative models or statistical tests for a single hypothesis. It is a method to address the issue that the "scientific process confronts researchers with a multiplicity of seemingly minor, yet nontrivial, decision points, each of which may introduce variability in research outcomes". A problem also known as Researcher degrees of freedom or as the garden of forking paths. It is a method arising in response to the credibility and replication crisis taking place in science, because it can diagnose the fragility or robustness of a study's findings. Multiverse analyses have been used in the fields of psychology and neuroscience. It is also a form of meta-analysis allowing researchers to provide evidence on how different model specifications impact results for the same hypothesis, and thus can point scientists toward where they might need better theory or causal models. Details Multiverse ana ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Researcher Degrees Of Freedom
Researcher degrees of freedom is a concept referring to the inherent flexibility involved in the process of designing and conducting a scientific experiment, and in analyzing its results. The term reflects the fact that researchers can choose between multiple ways of collecting and analyzing data, and these decisions can be made either arbitrarily or because they, unlike other possible choices, produce a positive and statistically significant result. The researcher degrees of freedom has positives such as affording the ability to look at nature from different angles, allowing new discoveries and hypotheses to be generated. However, researcher degrees of freedom can lead to data dredging and other questionable research practices where the different interpretations and analyses are taken for granted Their widespread use represents an inherent methodological limitation in scientific research, and contributes to an inflated rate of false-positive findings. They can also lead to ove ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Forking Paths Problem
The garden of forking paths is a problem in frequentist hypothesis testing through which researchers can unintentionally produce false positives for a tested hypothesis, through leaving themselves too many degrees of freedom. In contrast to fishing expeditions such as data dredging where only expected or apparently-significant results are published, this allows for a similar effect even when only one experiment is run, through a series of choices about how to implement methods and analyses, which are themselves informed by the data as it is observed and processed. History Exploring a forking decision-tree while analyzing data was at one point grouped with the multiple comparisons problem as an example of poor statistical method. However Gelman and Loken demonstrated that this can happen implicitly by researchers aware of best practices who only make a single comparison and only evaluate their data once. The fallacy is believing an analysis to be free of multiple comparisons de ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Replication Crisis
The replication crisis, also known as the reproducibility or replicability crisis, refers to the growing number of published scientific results that other researchers have been unable to reproduce or verify. Because the reproducibility of empirical results is an essential part of the scientific method, such failures undermine the credibility of theories that build on them and can call into question substantial parts of scientific knowledge. The replication crisis is frequently discussed in relation to psychology and medicine, wherein considerable efforts have been undertaken to reinvestigate the results of classic studies to determine whether they are reliable, and if they turn out not to be, the reasons for the failure. Data strongly indicate that other natural science, natural and social sciences are also affected. The phrase "replication crisis" was coined in the early 2010s as part of a growing awareness of the problem. Considerations of causes and remedies have given rise ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Meta-analysis
Meta-analysis is a method of synthesis of quantitative data from multiple independent studies addressing a common research question. An important part of this method involves computing a combined effect size across all of the studies. As such, this statistical approach involves extracting effect sizes and variance measures from various studies. By combining these effect sizes the statistical power is improved and can resolve uncertainties or discrepancies found in individual studies. Meta-analyses are integral in supporting research grant proposals, shaping treatment guidelines, and influencing health policies. They are also pivotal in summarizing existing research to guide future studies, thereby cementing their role as a fundamental methodology in metascience. Meta-analyses are often, but not always, important components of a systematic review. History The term "meta-analysis" was coined in 1976 by the statistician Gene V. Glass, Gene Glass, who stated ''"Meta-analysis refers t ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Causal Models
In metaphysics, a causal model (or structural causal model) is a conceptual model that describes the causal mechanisms of a system. Several types of causal notation may be used in the development of a causal model. Causal models can improve study designs by providing clear rules for deciding which independent variables need to be included/controlled for. They can allow some questions to be answered from existing observational data without the need for an interventional study such as a randomized controlled trial. Some interventional studies are inappropriate for ethical or practical reasons, meaning that without a causal model, some hypotheses cannot be tested. Causal models can help with the question of ''external validity'' (whether results from one study apply to unstudied populations). Causal models can allow data from multiple studies to be merged (in certain circumstances) to answer questions that cannot be answered by any individual data set. Causal models have found ap ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
False Positive
A false positive is an error in binary classification in which a test result incorrectly indicates the presence of a condition (such as a disease when the disease is not present), while a false negative is the opposite error, where the test result incorrectly indicates the absence of a condition when it is actually present. These are the two kinds of errors in a binary test, in contrast to the two kinds of correct result (a and a ). They are also known in medicine as a false positive (or false negative) diagnosis, and in statistical classification as a false positive (or false negative) error. In statistical hypothesis testing, the analogous concepts are known as type I and type II errors, where a positive result corresponds to rejecting the null hypothesis, and a negative result corresponds to not rejecting the null hypothesis. The terms are often used interchangeably, but there are differences in detail and interpretation due to the differences between medical testing and sta ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
Specification Curve
A specification often refers to a set of documented requirements to be satisfied by a material, design, product, or service. A specification is often a type of technical standard. There are different types of technical or engineering specifications (specs), and the term is used differently in different technical contexts. They often refer to particular documents, and/or particular information within them. The word ''specification'' is broadly defined as "to state explicitly or in detail" or "to be specific". A requirement specification is a documented requirement, or set of documented requirements, to be satisfied by a given material, design, product, service, etc. It is a common early part of engineering design and product development processes in many fields. A functional specification is a kind of requirement specification, and may show functional block diagrams. A design or product specification describes the features of the ''solutions'' for the Requirement Specification, ... [...More Info...] [...Related Items...] OR: [Wikipedia] [Google] [Baidu] |
