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In mathematics, certain kinds of mistaken proof are often exhibited, and sometimes collected, as illustrations of a concept called mathematical fallacy.There is a distinction between a simple mistake and a mathematical fallacy in a proof, in that a mistake in a proof leads to an invalid proof while in the best-known examples of mathematical fallacies there is some element of concealment or ...
That is, a misuse of statistics occurs when a statistical argument asserts a falsehood. In some cases, the misuse may be accidental. In others, it is purposeful and for the gain of the perpetrator. When the statistical reason involved is false or misapplied, this constitutes a statistical fallacy. The consequences of such misinterpretations can ...
In statistical hypothesis testing, a type I error, or a false positive, is the rejection of the null hypothesis when it is actually true. For example, an innocent person may be convicted. A type II error, or a false negative, is the failure to reject a null hypothesis that is actually false. For example: a guilty person may be not convicted.
In published academic research, publication bias occurs when the outcome of an experiment or research study biases the decision to publish or otherwise distribute it. Publishing only results that show a significant finding disturbs the balance of findings in favor of positive results. [ 1 ] The study of publication bias is an important topic in ...
Fundamentally, type III errors occur when researchers provide the right answer to the wrong question, i.e. when the correct hypothesis is rejected but for the wrong reason. Since the paired notions of type I errors (or "false positives") and type II errors (or "false negatives") that were introduced by Neyman and Pearson are now widely used ...
The gambler's fallacy, also known as the Monte Carlo fallacy or the fallacy of the maturity of chances, is the belief that, if an event (whose occurrences are independent and identically distributed) has occurred less frequently than expected, it is more likely to happen again in the future (or vice versa). The fallacy is commonly associated ...
Multiple comparisons problem. An example of coincidence produced by data dredging (uncorrected multiple comparisons) showing a correlation between the number of letters in a spelling bee's winning word and the number of people in the United States killed by venomous spiders. Given a large enough pool of variables for the same time period, it is ...
A formal fallacy, deductive fallacy, logical fallacy or non sequitur (Latin for "it does not follow") is a flaw in the structure of a deductive argument that renders the argument invalid. The flaw can be expressed in the standard system of logic. [ 1 ] Such an argument is always considered to be wrong.