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Class Notes

Parametric tests make assumptions about the underlying statistical distribution of the population data, requiring certain conditions to be met for valid results. Nonparametric tests do not rely on any distributional assumptions and can be applied even if parametric test conditions are not satisfied. Key differences are that parametric tests assume parameters like the mean and variance of the population are known, while nonparametric tests do not assume any population parameters are known.

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John Brayshaw
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49 views

Class Notes

Parametric tests make assumptions about the underlying statistical distribution of the population data, requiring certain conditions to be met for valid results. Nonparametric tests do not rely on any distributional assumptions and can be applied even if parametric test conditions are not satisfied. Key differences are that parametric tests assume parameters like the mean and variance of the population are known, while nonparametric tests do not assume any population parameters are known.

Uploaded by

John Brayshaw
Copyright
© © All Rights Reserved
Available Formats
Download as DOCX, PDF, TXT or read online on Scribd
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1.

Define Parametric Test

A parametric statistical test is one that makes assumptions about the


parameters (defining properties) of the population distribution(s) from which
one's data are drawn. Since a parametric model relies on a fixed parameter
set, it assumes more about a given population than non-parametric methods
do. When the assumptions are correct, parametric methods will produce
more accurate and precise estimates than non-parametric methods, i.e.
have more statistical power. However, as more is assumed by parametric
methods, when the assumptions are not correct they have a greater chance
of failing and for this reason are not robust statistical methods. On the other
hand, parametric formulae are often simpler to write down and faster to
compute. For this reason their simplicity can make up for their lack of
robustness, especially if care is taken to examine diagnostic statistics.

The normal family of distributions all have the same general shape and are
parameterized by mean and standard deviation. That means that if the
mean and standard deviation are known and if the distribution is normal, the
probability of any future observation lying in a given range is known.
Suppose we have a sample of 99 test scores with a mean of 100 and a
standard deviation of 1. If we assume all 99 test scores are random
observations from a normal distribution, then we predict there is a 1%
chance that the 100th test score will be higher than 102.365 (that is, the
mean plus 2.365 standard deviations) assuming that the 100th test score
comes from the same distribution as the others. Parametric statistical
methods are used to compute the 2.365 value above, given 99 independent
observations from the same normal distribution.

2. Define Non Parametric Test

Nonparametric statistics is the branch of statistics that is not based solely on


parameterized families of probability distributions (common examples of
parameters are the mean and variance). Nonparametric statistics is based
on either being distribution-free or having a specified distribution but with
the distribution's parameters unspecified. Nonparametric statistics includes
both descriptive statistics and statistical inference.

3. Difference between Parametric and Non Parametric Test

1) Parametric tests assume underlying statistical distributions in the


data. Therefore, several conditions of validity must be met so that the result
of a parametric test is reliable. For example, Student’s t-test for two
independent samples is reliable only if each sample follows a normal
distribution and if sample variances are homogeneous.

Nonparametric tests do not rely on any distribution. They can thus be


applied even if parametric conditions of validity are not met.

Parametric tests often have nonparametric equivalents. You will find


different parametric tests with their equivalents when they exist in this grid.

2) Making assumptions

The parametric test makes assumptions about the population. It needs the
parameters that are connected to the normal distribution that is used in the
analysis, and the only way to know these parameters is to have some
knowledge about the population. On the other hand, a nonparametric test,
as the name indicates, doesn’t rely on any parameters and therefore doesn’t
assume anything about the population.

3) Probability of Parametric and Nonparametric

The basis for the statistic analysis that will be performed on the data, in the
case of parametric tests, is probabilistic distribution. On the other hand, the
basis for nonparametric tests doesn’t exist – it’s completely arbitrary. This
results in more flexibility and makes it easier to fit the hypothesis with the
collected data.

4) Measure of central tendency

The measure of central tendency is a central value in a probability


distribution. And although the probability distribution in the case of
nonparametric statistics is arbitrary, it still exists, and therefore so does the
measure of central tendency. However, those measures are different. In the
case of parametric tests, it is taken to be the mean value, whereas, in the
case of nonparametric tests, it is taken to be the median value.

5) Knowledge of population parameters

The first difference, information about the population varies between


parametric and nonparametric tests and statistics. Namely, certain
knowledge about the population is absolutely necessary for a parametric
analysis, because it requires population-related parameters in order to give
precise results. On the other hand, a nonparametric approach can be taken
without any previous knowledge of the population.

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