Information theory and hypothesis testing: a call for pluralism

By Philip Stephens, S. Buskirk, G. Hayward, C. Martínez Del Rio. 2005

315 citations recorded by the source corpus.

Subfields: Ecological Modeling, Global and Planetary Change, Nature and Landscape Conservation

View Paper: https://www.semanticscholar.org/paper/23f1f678b2d0f67d2552a14f1539293144406daf

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In Ecological Modeling

In Global and Planetary Change

In Nature and Landscape Conservation

Citations in the corpus

Assessing road effects on bats: the role of landscape, road features, and bat activity on road-kills (2013, unknown): “However, the significance levels of the variables were presented and discussed because, despite Burnham and Anderson (2002) do not recommend mixing information-theoretic model comparison (ITMC) and nullhypothesis theory, it is possible and helpful to use the later to enhance the confidence in the co”
Information-theoretic approaches to statistical analysis in behavioural ecology: an introduction (2010, methodology): “In other words, NHT and IT approaches differ with regard to how inference is drawn, but not with regard to computation and model fitting (Mundry 2010).”
Effect size, confidence interval and statistical significance: a practical guide for biologists (2007, methodology): “When one or more factors are experimentally manipulated the final (and only) model retains these factors to determine their magnitude of effect (see Stephens et al., 2005; Whittingham et al., 2006).”
Body size and reserve protection affect flight initiation distance in parrotfishes (2009, methodology): “Because biases and shortcomings of stepwise multiple regression are well-established (Hurvich and Tsai 1990; Wintle et al. 2003; Johnson and Omland 2004; Stephens et al. 2005; Whittingham et al. 2006) and because the use of the null hypothesis significance test approach has been criticized in obse”
Changing philosophies and tools for statistical inferences in behavioral ecology (2009, methodology): “Rather, in accordance with recommended practices in ecology (Stephens et al. 2005), we emphasize the importance of a pluralistic approach, by which the researcher must carefully choose the most appropriate statistical method based on the questions at hand.”
A farewell to the sum of Akaike weights: The benefits of alternative metrics for variable importance estimations in model selection (2017, methodology): “…alongside) predic - tions, model selection can be used for statistical inferences: it helps discriminating between important and unimportant variables in the sample, hence inferring major (potentially causal) influences of a set of variables on the response (Mac Nally, 2000; Stephens et al., 2005).”
Ecological Models and Data in R (2008, methodology): “My own approach is eclectic, agreeing with the advice of Crome (1997) and Stephens et al. (2005) to try to understand the strengths and weaknesses of several different approaches and use each one as appropriate.”
Model selection and model averaging in behavioural ecology: the utility of the IT-AIC framework (2010, background): “Whilst the advantages of IT in more complex settings are well recognised (e.g. Stephens et al. 2005; Whittingham et al. 2006), the advantages for simpler problems with single variable causation have received less attention (but see Lukacs et al. 2007).”
NEST SITE SELECTION AND NESTING SUCCESS IN SALTMARSH BREEDING SPARROWS: THE IMPORTANCE OF NEST HABITAT, TIMING, AND STUDY SITE DIFFERENCES (2005, methodology): “We then used logistic regression (Hosmer and Lemeshow 2000) to compare habitat between nest and nonnest locations for both sparrow species, and an information-theoretic approach to select the model that best fit the data (Burnham and Anderson 2002, Johnson and Omland 2004, Stephens et al. 2005).”
Revisiting Chamberlin: Multiple Working Hypotheses for the 21st Century (2007, background): “In fact there is a spectrum of possible approaches to analyses in natural science, from repeatable experimental designs with controlled treatments to diachronic observational studies in which the luxury of control is simply not tenable (Stephens et al. 2005).”
A protocol for data exploration to avoid common statistical problems (2010, methodology): “…practices (Roberts, Stewart & Pullin 2006; Pullin & Knight 2009), and applied ecologists have become increasingly sophisticated in the statistical methods that they use (e.g. Ellison 2004; Stephens et al. 2005; Robinson & Hamann 2008; Koper & Manseau 2009; Law et al. 2009; Sonderegger et al. 2009).”
Establishment success of invasive ring‐necked and monk parakeets in Europe (2009, methodology): “Data were analysed using two distinct approaches: a ‘traditional’ stepwise logistic regression, and a more recent information-theoretic approach (see Burnham & Anderson, 2002; Stephens et al., 2005, 2007; Lukacs et al., 2007).”
Issues in information theory-based statistical inference—a commentary from a frequentist’s perspective (2010, background): “Hence, it seems that a decision between one or the other approach is best driven by the specific question addressed rather than by the somewhat arbitrary distinction between experimental and observational studies (see also Stephens et al. 2005; Garamszegi 2010).”