To t-Test or Not to t-Test? A p-Values-Based Point of View in the Receiver Operating Characteristic Curve Framework

Journal of computational biology: A journal of computational molecular cell biology

AlbertVexler¹ 

关键词: AUC;    expected p-value;    partial AUC;    partial expected p-value;    power;    p-value;    ROC curve;    t-test;    Wilcoxon test;   

DOI  :  10.1089/cmb.2017.0216

学科分类：生物科学（综合）

来源: Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. Publishers

【 摘 要 】

A common statistical doctrine supported by many introductory courses and textbooks is that t-test type procedures based on normally distributed data points are anticipated to provide a standard in decision-making. In order to motivate scholars to examine this convention, we introduce a simple approach based on graphical tools of receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis, a well-established biostatistical methodology. In this context, we propose employing a p-values-based method, taking into account the stochastic nature of p-values. We focus on the modern statistical literature to address the expected p-value (EPV) as a measure of the performance of decision-making rules. During the course of our study, we extend the EPV concept to be considered in terms of the ROC curve technique. This provides expressive evaluations and visualizations of a wide spectrum of testing mechanisms' properties. We show that the conventional power characterization of tests is a partial aspect of the presented EPV/ROC technique. We desire that this explanation of the EPV/ROC approach convinces researchers of the usefulness of the EPV/ROC approach for depicting different characteristics of decision-making procedures, in light of the growing interest regarding correct p-values-based applications.

【 授权许可】

Unknown