Peter Norvig talks about the different kinds of errors that occur in experimental design and in the interpretation of the results. It’s fairly common for media coverage of experimental results to be presented as facts without any of the caveats or critical analysis. For example, publication bias appears when the process of publication of experimental [...]
Archive for June, 2007
Peter Norvig on Errors of Experimental Design
Posted in biases, nature language processing, statistics on June 20, 2007 | Leave a Comment »
Literal Survivor Bias
Posted in biases on June 20, 2007 | 4 Comments »
I found this (probably apocryphal) anecdote demonstrating survivor bias which I think makes the point with more clarity than the classical example of mutual funds:
Every day in World War II, bombers would fly from England to drop bombs on targets in continental Europe. Some would never return, some others would make it home [...]
