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1363 andrew gelman stats-2012-06-03-Question about predictive checks


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Introduction: Klaas Metselaar writes: I [Metselaar] am currently involved in a discussion about the use of the notion “predictive” as used in “posterior predictive check”. I would argue that the notion “predictive” should be reserved for posterior checks using information not used in the determination of the posterior. I quote from the discussion: “However, the predictive uncertainty in a Bayesian calculation requires sampling from all the random variables, and this includes both the model parameters and the residual error”. My [Metselaar's] comment: This may be exactly the point I am worried about: shouldn’t the predictive uncertainty be defined as sampling from the posterior parameter distribution + residual error + sampling from the prediction error distribution? Residual error reduces to measurement error in the case of a model which is perfect for the sample of experiments. Measurement error could be reduced to almost zero by ideal and perfect measurement instruments. I would h


Summary: the most important sentenses genereted by tfidf model

sentIndex sentText sentNum sentScore

1 Klaas Metselaar writes: I [Metselaar] am currently involved in a discussion about the use of the notion “predictive” as used in “posterior predictive check”. [sent-1, score-0.699]

2 I would argue that the notion “predictive” should be reserved for posterior checks using information not used in the determination of the posterior. [sent-2, score-0.989]

3 I quote from the discussion: “However, the predictive uncertainty in a Bayesian calculation requires sampling from all the random variables, and this includes both the model parameters and the residual error”. [sent-3, score-0.938]

4 My [Metselaar's] comment: This may be exactly the point I am worried about: shouldn’t the predictive uncertainty be defined as sampling from the posterior parameter distribution + residual error + sampling from the prediction error distribution? [sent-4, score-2.129]

5 Residual error reduces to measurement error in the case of a model which is perfect for the sample of experiments. [sent-5, score-1.146]

6 Measurement error could be reduced to almost zero by ideal and perfect measurement instruments. [sent-6, score-0.676]

7 It is the price we have to pay for imperfect knowledge (a small sample of experimental sites or too large a leap of faith in defining the population for which the sample is representative), new times and new places. [sent-8, score-0.7]

8 Unless we can show that this predictive error distribution is essentially 0 for the population of interest, we as scientists have work to do. [sent-9, score-0.934]

9 using a model for gravity with a posterior based on earth observations only, and wanting to use it predictively for earth and mars. [sent-12, score-1.093]

10 A posterior predictive check for earth could be perfect, but would be completely wrong if the model is to be used for mars (the leap of faith I am talking about). [sent-13, score-1.561]

11 I would reserve the notion posterior distribution check for checks involving the data “A” on which the posterior is based, and reserve the notion “posterior predictive check” for a posterior distribution check using data not contained in dataset “A”. [sent-14, score-3.325]

12 My reply: We speak of three sorts of predictive checks: within-sample, cross-validation, and out-of-sample. [sent-15, score-0.53]

13 In any of these scenarios, we are comparing data to a predictive distribution. [sent-16, score-0.557]

14 In the first case, we are comparing data to predictions based on a model fit to those data. [sent-17, score-0.383]

15 In the second case, we hold out some of our data for the comparison. [sent-18, score-0.149]

16 In the third case, we compare predictions to new data not from the original source. [sent-19, score-0.147]

17 All three of these sorts of predictive comparisons can be useful. [sent-20, score-0.53]


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