HKU HKU Dept of Statistics & Actuarial Science, HKU
 
 

Seminar by Dr. Michael Patrick FAY from Biostatistics Research Branch, Office of Clinical Research, National Institute of Allergy and Infectious Diseases


DateApril 13, 2022, Wednesday
Time9:30 a.m. – 10:30 a.m.
Venuevia Zoom
 
TitleInterpreting p-values & confidence intervals using well-calibrated null preference priors
Abstract

We propose well-calibrated null preference priors for use with one-sided hypothesis tests, such that resulting Bayesian and frequentist inferences agree. Null preference priors mean that they have nearly 100% of their prior belief in the null hypothesis, and well-calibrated priors mean that the resulting posterior beliefs in the alternative hypothesis are not overconfident. This formulation expands the class of problems giving Bayes-frequentist agreement to include problems involving discrete distributions such as binomial and negative binomial one- and two-sample exact (i.e., valid) tests. When applicable, these priors give posterior belief in the null hypothesis that is a valid p-value, and the null preference prior emphasizes that large p-values may simply represent insufficient data to overturn prior belief. This formulation gives a Bayesian interpretation of some common frequentist tests, as well as more intuitively explaining lesser known and less straightforward confidence intervals for two-sample tests.

About the speaker

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