February, 2003
© 2000, 2001, 2003 Scott S. Emerson, M.D., Ph.D.
Hierarchy of Statistical Goals: 20
Hierarchy of Statistical Goals
Fourth choice: Frequentist methods (cont.)
We do not usually have enough data to know what would happen if we repeated the study under the true setting, but we can often guess what would happen under specific hypotheses
Hence, frequentists characterize the sampling distribution under specific hypotheses and compare the observed data to what might reasonably have been obtained if that hypothesis were true