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Master the top 7 statistical techniques for better data analysis

February 7, 2023

Get ahead in data analysis with our summary of the top 7 must-know statistical techniques. Master these tools for better insights and results.

While the field of statistical inference is fascinating, many people have a tough time grasping its subtleties. For example, some may not be aware that there are multiple types of inference and that each is applied in a different situation. Moreover, the applications to which inference can be applied are equally diverse.

For example, when it comes to assessing the credibility of a witness, we need to know how reliable the person is and how likely it is that the person is lying. Similarly, when it comes to making predictions about the future, it is important to factor in not just the accuracy of the forecast but also whether it is credible. 

 

Top statistical techniques
Top statistical techniques – Data Science Dojo

 

Counterfactual causal inference: 

Counterfactual causal inference is a statistical technique that is used to evaluate the causal significance of historical events. Exploring how historical events may have unfolded under small changes in circumstances allows us to assess the importance of factors that may have caused the event. This technique can be used in a wide range of fields such as economics, history, and social sciences. There are multiple ways of doing counterfactual inference, such as Bayesian Structural Modelling. 

  

Overparametrized models and regularization: 

Overparametrized models are models that have more parameters than the number of observations. These models are prone to overfitting and are not generalizable to new data. Regularization is a technique that is used to combat overfitting in overparametrized models. Regularization adds a penalty term to the loss function to discourage the model from fitting the noise in the data. Two common types of regularization are L1 and L2 regularization. 

  

Generic computation algorithms: 

Generic computation algorithms are a set of algorithms that can be applied to a wide range of problems. These algorithms are often used to solve optimization problems, such as gradient descent and conjugate gradient. They are also used in machine learning, such as support vector machines and k-means clustering. 

  

Robust inference: 

Robust inference is a technique that is used to make inferences that are not sensitive to outliers or extreme observations. This technique is often used in cases where the data is contaminated with errors or outliers. There are several robust statistical methods such as the median and the Huber M-estimator. 

 

Read about: Key statistical distributions with real life scenarios

 

Bootstrapping and simulation-based inference: 

Bootstrapping and simulation-based inference are techniques that are used to estimate the precision of sample statistics and to evaluate and compare models. Bootstrapping is a resampling technique that is used to estimate the sampling distribution of a statistic by resampling the data with replacement.

Simulation-based inference is a method that is used to estimate the sampling distribution of a statistic by generating many simulated samples from the model. 

  

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Multilevel models: 

Multilevel models are a class of models that are used to account for the hierarchical structure of data. These models are often used in fields such as education, sociology, and epidemiology. They are also known as hierarchical linear models, mixed-effects models, or random coefficient models. 

  

Adaptive decision analysis: 

Adaptive Decision Analysis is a statistical technique that is used to make decisions under uncertainty. It involves modeling the decision problem, simulating the outcomes of the decision and updating the decision based on the new information. This method is often used in fields such as finance, engineering, and healthcare. 

 

Which statistical techniques are most used by you? 

This article discusses most of the statistical methods that are used in quantitative fields. These are often used to infer causal relationships between variables. 

The primary goal of any statistical way is to infer causality from observational data. It is usually difficult to achieve this goal for two reasons. First, observational data may be noisy and contaminated by errors. Second, variables are often correlated. To correctly infer causality, it is necessary to model these correlations and to account for any biases and confounding factors. 

As statistical techniques are often implemented using specific software packages, the implementations of each method often differ. This article first briefly describes the papers and software packages that are used in the following sections. It then describes the most common statistical techniques and the best practices that are associated with each technique. 

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