Statistical Analysis Stack Exchange
Statistical Analysis Stack Exchange

Questions tagged [terminology]

Usage and meaning of specific technical words/concepts in statistics.

From computing.surrey.ac.uk

Three major points:

  1. Firstly, proper terminology is concerned with the relationship between concepts, and between them and their designations, rather than with designations alone or with the objects they represent. This point is essential if quality is to be achieved, especially with synonyms and in multilingual environments.
  2. Secondly, a designation does not necessarily have to be a word or phrase, although it often is. Thus terminological resources may comprise symbols, drawings, formulae, codes, etc. as well as, or even instead of, words. This point is especially important given the move to multimedia systems.
  3. Thirdly, terminology is inextricably linked with specialist knowledge and hence with special languages or languages for special purposes (LSPs).
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What is the difference between "likelihood" and "probability"?

The wikipedia page claims that likelihood and probability are distinct concepts. In non-technical parlance, "likelihood" is usually a synonym for "probability," but in statistical usage there is a clear distinction in perspective: the number that…
Douglas S. Stones
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What is batch size in neural network?

I'm using Python Keras package for neural network. This is the link. Is batch_size equals to number of test samples? From Wikipedia we have this information: However, in other cases, evaluating the sum-gradient may require expensive evaluations…
user2991243
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What is a data scientist?

Having recently graduated from my PhD program in statistics, I had for the last couple of months began searching for work in the field of statistics. Almost every company I considered had a job posting with a job title of "Data Scientist". In fact,…
RustyStatistician
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Objective function, cost function, loss function: are they the same thing?

In machine learning, people talk about objective function, cost function, loss function. Are they just different names of the same thing? When to use them? If they are not always refer to the same thing, what are the differences?
Bin
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Difference between neural net weight decay and learning rate

In the context of neural networks, what is the difference between the learning rate and weight decay?
Ryan Zotti
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What does a "closed-form solution" mean?

I have come across the term "closed-form solution" quite often. What does a closed-form solution mean? How does one determine if a close-form solution exists for a given problem? Searching online, I found some information, but nothing in the context…
arjsgh21
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What misused statistical terms are worth correcting?

Statistics is everywhere; common usage of statistical terms is, however, often unclear. The terms probability and odds are used interchangeable in lay English despite their well-defined and different mathematical expressions. Not separating the term…
Antoni Parellada
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What is covariance in plain language?

What is covariance in plain language and how is it linked to the terms dependence, correlation and variance-covariance structure with respect to repeated-measures designs?
abc
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When should linear regression be called "machine learning"?

In a recent colloquium, the speaker's abstract claimed they were using machine learning. During the talk, the only thing related to machine learning was that they perform linear regression on their data. After calculating the best-fit coefficients…
jvriesem
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Why isn't Logistic Regression called Logistic Classification?

Since Logistic Regression is a statistical classification model dealing with categorical dependent variables, why isn't it called Logistic Classification? Shouldn't the "Regression" name be reserved to models dealing with continuous dependent…
Ismael Ghalimi
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Is there a way to remember the definitions of Type I and Type II Errors?

I'm not a statistician by education, I'm a software engineer. Yet statistics comes up a lot. In fact, questions specifically about Type I and Type II error are coming up a lot in the course of my studying for the Certified Software Development…
Thomas Owens
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What is the difference between Multiclass and Multilabel Problem

What is the difference between a multiclass problem and a multilabel problem?
Learner
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What do you call an average that does not include outliers?

What do you call an average that does not include outliers? For example if you have a set: {90,89,92,91,5} avg = 73.4 but excluding the outlier (5) we have {90,89,92,91(,5)} avg = 90.5 How do you describe this average in statistics?
Tawani
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What is the best way to remember the difference between sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, and recall?

Despite having seen these terms 502847894789 times, I cannot for the life of me remember the difference between sensitivity, specificity, precision, accuracy, and recall. They're pretty simple concepts, but the names are highly unintuitive to me,…
Jessica
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Explain the difference between multiple regression and multivariate regression, with minimal use of symbols/math

Are multiple and multivariate regression really different? What is a variate anyways?
Neil McGuigan
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