[R] general question on binomial test / sign test

[David Winsemius]

On Sep 2, 2010, at 2:01 PM, Greg Snow wrote:

<snipped much good material>
>
> The real tricky bit about hypothesis testing is that we compute a  
> single p-value, a single observation from a distribution, and based  
> on that try to decide if the process that produced that observation  
> is a uniform distribution or something else (that may be close to a  
> uniform or very different).

My friendly addition would be to point the OP in the direction of  
using qqplot() for the examination of distributional properties rather  
than doing any sort of hypothesis testing. There is a learning curve  
for using that tool, but it will pay off in the end.

-- 
David.
>
> Hope this helps,
>
> -- 
> Gregory (Greg) L. Snow Ph.D.
> Statistical Data Center
> Intermountain Healthcare
> greg.snow at imail.org
> 801.408.8111
>
>
>> -----Original Message-----
>> From: r-help-bounces at r-project.org [mailto:r-help-bounces at r-
>> project.org] On Behalf Of Kay Cecil Cichini
>> Sent: Thursday, September 02, 2010 6:40 AM
>> To: ted.harding at manchester.ac.uk
>> Cc: r-help at r-project.org
>> Subject: Re: [R] general question on binomial test / sign test
>>
>>
>> thanks a lot for the elaborations.
>>
>> your explanations clearly brought to me that either
>> binom.test(1,1,0.5,"two-sided") or binom.test(0,1,0.5) giving a
>> p-value of 1 simply indicate i have abolutely no ensurance to reject
>> H0.
>>
>> considering binom.test(0,1,0.5,alternative="greater") and
>> binom.test(1,1,0.5,alternative="less") where i get a p-value of 1 and
>> 0.5,respectively - am i right in stating that for the first estimate
>> 0/1 i have no ensurance at all for rejection of H0 and for the second
>> estimate = 1/1 i have same chance for beeing wrong in either  
>> rejecting
>> or keeping H0.
>>
>> many thanks,
>> kay
>>
>>

David Winsemius, MD
West Hartford, CT