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Part of the book series: Synthese Library ((SYLI,volume 115))

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Abstract

Interpreted as indices of the support for an hypothesis, Fisherian significance tests are assimilable into the corpus of Bayesian methods. The observed sample coverage is an approximation to the average likelihood, and one that is often more convenient to use (or which can be used as a surrogate when the likelihood function cannot be computed). Moreover, the OSC has a clear and definite meaning as a measure of the improbability of a theory’s accuracy. Any two theories or hypotheses can be compared in this respect, whether they are exclusive or not, and whether they are drawn from the same or disparate fields of science. In what follows, I will refer to this interpretation of significance tests as ‘the Bayesian evidential interpretation’.

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© 1977 D. Reidel Publishing Company, Dordrecht, Holland

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Rosenkrantz, R.D. (1977). Testing. In: Inference, Method and Decision. Synthese Library, vol 115. Springer, Dordrecht. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1237-9_10

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-94-010-1237-9_10

  • Publisher Name: Springer, Dordrecht

  • Print ISBN: 978-90-277-0818-2

  • Online ISBN: 978-94-010-1237-9

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