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Distribution-free methods in statistics

Corresponding Author

W. J. Conover

[email protected]

Horn Professor of Statistics, Rawls College of Business Administration, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA

Horn Professor of Statistics, Rawls College of Business Administration, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409, USASearch for more papers by this author

W. J. Conover,

Corresponding Author

W. J. Conover

[email protected]

Horn Professor of Statistics, Rawls College of Business Administration, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, TX 79409, USA

Horn Professor of Statistics, Rawls College of Business Administration, Texas Tech University, Lubbock, Texas 79409, USASearch for more papers by this author

First published: 23 June 2009

https://doi.org/10.1002/wics.28

Citations: 2

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Abstract

Statistical methods that do not rely on the assumption of a known population probability distribution function for their validity are called Distribution-free Statistical Methods (also called nonparametric statistical methods). This includes many methods for presenting statistics in graphs, such as histograms, cumulative distribution functions, correlograms, etc. It also includes the calculation of most sample statistics, such as sample means, sample variances, etc. The method is no longer distribution-free when the validity of the method depends on an assumption that specifies the form of the population probability distribution, or specifies that the population distribution comes from a family of population probability distribution functions that are specified except for a finite number of parameters. Then the method is in the class of parametric methods. Usually, the distributional assumption is the assumption that the population has a normal probability distribution, with one or both of the parameters (mean and variance) unspecified. Copyright © 2009 Wiley Periodicals, Inc., A Wiley Company

This article is categorized under:

Statistical and Graphical Methods of Data Analysis > Bootstrap and Resampling

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Volume1, Issue2

September/October 2009

Pages 199-207

Distribution-free methods in statistics

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