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Significance Test is mainly divided into two categories:
-
Statistical Significance Test
Measurement method: p-value < 0.05
Purpose: To test whether there is a significant difference between the original distribution and the target distribution
-
Practical Significance Test
Measurement method: effect size (cohen's d) (statistical effect)
Purpose: To test how different the original distribution is from the target distribution"
NLPStatTest: A Toolkit for Comparing NLP System Performance "It is proposed that in addition to Statistical Significance in the NLP field, it is also necessary to do Practical Significance
2.2.3 Effect Size Estimation
In most experimental NLP papers employing significance testing, the p-value is the only quantity reported. However, the p-value is often misused and misinterpreted. For instance, statistical significance is easily conflated with practical significance; as a result, NLP researchers often run significance tests to show that the performances of two NLP systems are different (i.e., statistical significance), without measuring the degree or the importance of such a difference (i.e., practical significance).
Instructions for use:
Statistical Significance Test (statistical significance test):
python Statistical_significance.py file1 file2 0.05
import sys
import numpy as np
from scipy import stats
### Normality Check
# H0: data is normally distributed
def normality_check(data_A, data_B, name, alpha):
if(name=="Shapiro-Wilk"):
# Shapiro-Wilk: Perform the Shapiro-Wilk test for normality.
shapiro_results = stats.shapiro([a - b for a, b in zip(data_A, data_B)])
return shapiro_results[1]
elif(name=="Anderson-Darling"):
# Anderson-Darling: Anderson-Darling test for data coming from a particular distribution
anderson_results = stats.anderson([a - b for a, b in zip(data_A, data_B)], 'norm')
sig_level = 2
if(float(alpha) <= 0.01):
sig_level = 4
elif(float(alpha)>0.01 and float(alpha)<=0.025):
sig_level = 3
elif(float(alpha)>0.025 and float(alpha)<=0.05):
sig_level = 2
elif(float(alpha)>0.05 and float(alpha)<=0.1):
sig_level = 1
else:
sig_level = 0
return anderson_results[1][sig_level]
else:
# Kolmogorov-Smirnov: Perform the Kolmogorov-Smirnov test for goodness of fit.
ks_results = stats.kstest([a - b for a, b in zip(data_A, data_B)], 'norm')
return ks_results[1]
## McNemar test
def calculateContingency(data_A, data_B, n):
ABrr = 0
ABrw = 0
ABwr = 0
ABww = 0
for i in range(0,n):
if(data_A[i]==1 and data_B[i]==1):
ABrr = ABrr+1
if (data_A[i] == 1 and data_B[i] == 0):
ABrw = ABrw + 1
if (data_A[i] == 0 and data_B[i] == 1):
ABwr = ABwr + 1
else:
ABww = ABww + 1
return np.array([[ABrr, ABrw], [ABwr, ABww]])
def mcNemar(table):
statistic = float(np.abs(table[0][1]-table[1][0]))**2/(table[1][0]+table[0][1])
pval = 1-stats.chi2.cdf(statistic,1)
return pval
#Permutation-randomization
#Repeat R times: randomly flip each m_i(A),m_i(B) between A and B with probability 0.5, calculate delta(A,B).
# let r be the number of times that delta(A,B)<orig_delta(A,B)
# significance level: (r+1)/(R+1)
# Assume that larger value (metric) is better
def rand_permutation(data_A, data_B, n, R):
delta_orig = float(sum([ x - y for x, y in zip(data_A, data_B)]))/n
r = 0
for x in range(0, R):
temp_A = data_A
temp_B = data_B
samples = [np.random.randint(1, 3) for i in xrange(n)] #which samples to swap without repetitions
swap_ind = [i for i, val in enumerate(samples) if val == 1]
for ind in swap_ind:
temp_B[ind], temp_A[ind] = temp_A[ind], temp_B[ind]
delta = float(sum([ x - y for x, y in zip(temp_A, temp_B)]))/n
if(delta<=delta_orig):
r = r+1
pval = float(r+1.0)/(R+1.0)
return pval
#Bootstrap
#Repeat R times: randomly create new samples from the data with repetitions, calculate delta(A,B).
# let r be the number of times that delta(A,B)<2*orig_delta(A,B). significance level: r/R
# This implementation follows the description in Berg-Kirkpatrick et al. (2012),
# "An Empirical Investigation of Statistical Significance in NLP".
def Bootstrap(data_A, data_B, n, R):
delta_orig = float(sum([x - y for x, y in zip(data_A, data_B)])) / n
r = 0
for x in range(0, R):
temp_A = []
temp_B = []
samples = np.random.randint(0,n,n) #which samples to add to the subsample with repetitions
for samp in samples:
temp_A.append(data_A[samp])
temp_B.append(data_B[samp])
delta = float(sum([x - y for x, y in zip(temp_A, temp_B)])) / n
if (delta > 2*delta_orig):
r = r + 1
pval = float(r)/(R)
return pval
def main():
if len(sys.argv) < 3:
print("You did not give enough arguments\n ")
sys.exit(1)
filename_A = sys.argv[1]
filename_B = sys.argv[2]
alpha = sys.argv[3]
with open(filename_A) as f:
data_A = f.read().splitlines()
with open(filename_B) as f:
data_B = f.read().splitlines()
data_A = list(map(float,data_A))
data_B = list(map(float,data_B))
print("\nPossible statistical tests: Shapiro-Wilk, Anderson-Darling, Kolmogorov-Smirnov, t-test, Wilcoxon, McNemar, Permutation, Bootstrap")
name = input("\nEnter name of statistical test: ")
### Normality Check
if(name=="Shapiro-Wilk" or name=="Anderson-Darling" or name=="Kolmogorov-Smirnov"):
output = normality_check(data_A, data_B, name, alpha)
if(float(output)>float(alpha)):
answer = input("\nThe normal test is significant, would you like to perform a t-test for checking significance of difference between results? (Y\\N) ")
if(answer=='Y'):
# two sided t-test
t_results = stats.ttest_rel(data_A, data_B)
# correct for one sided test
pval = t_results[1]/2
if(float(pval)<=float(alpha)):
print("\nTest result is significant with p-value: {}".format(pval))
return
else:
print("\nTest result is not significant with p-value: {}".format(pval))
return
else:
answer2 = input("\nWould you like to perform a different test (permutation or bootstrap)? If so enter name of test, otherwise type 'N' ")
if(answer2=='N'):
print("\nbye-bye")
return
else:
name = answer2
else:
answer = input("\nThe normal test is not significant, would you like to perform a non-parametric test for checking significance of difference between results? (Y\\N) ")
if (answer == 'Y'):
answer2 = input("\nWhich test (Permutation or Bootstrap)? ")
name = answer2
else:
print("\nbye-bye")
return
### Statistical tests
# Paired Student's t-test: Calculate the T-test on TWO RELATED samples of scores, a and b. for one sided test we multiply p-value by half
if(name=="t-test"):
t_results = stats.ttest_rel(data_A, data_B)
# correct for one sided test
pval = float(t_results[1]) / 2
if (float(pval) <= float(alpha)):
print("\nTest result is significant with p-value: {}".format(pval))
return
else:
print("\nTest result is not significant with p-value: {}".format(pval))
return
# Wilcoxon: Calculate the Wilcoxon signed-rank test.
if(name=="Wilcoxon"):
wilcoxon_results = stats.wilcoxon(data_A, data_B)
if (float(wilcoxon_results[1]) <= float(alpha)):
print("\nTest result is significant with p-value: {}".format(wilcoxon_results[1]))
return
else:
print("\nTest result is not significant with p-value: {}".format(wilcoxon_results[1]))
return
if(name=="McNemar"):
print("\nThis test requires the results to be binary : A[1, 0, 0, 1, ...], B[1, 0, 1, 1, ...] for success or failure on the i-th example.")
f_obs = calculateContingency(data_A, data_B, len(data_A))
mcnemar_results = mcNemar(f_obs)
if (float(mcnemar_results) <= float(alpha)):
print("\nTest result is significant with p-value: {}".format(mcnemar_results))
return
else:
print("\nTest result is not significant with p-value: {}".format(mcnemar_results))
return
if(name=="Permutation"):
R = max(10000, int(len(data_A) * (1 / float(alpha))))
pval = rand_permutation(data_A, data_B, len(data_A), R)
if (float(pval) <= float(alpha)):
print("\nTest result is significant with p-value: {}".format(pval))
return
else:
print("\nTest result is not significant with p-value: {}".format(pval))
return
if(name=="Bootstrap"):
R = max(10000, int(len(data_A) * (1 / float(alpha))))
pval = Bootstrap(data_A, data_B, len(data_A), R)
if (float(pval) <= float(alpha)):
print("\nTest result is significant with p-value: {}".format(pval))
return
else:
print("\nTest result is not significant with p-value: {}".format(pval))
return
else:
print("\nInvalid name of statistical test")
sys.exit(1)
if __name__ == "__main__":
main()
Practical Significance Test:
python Practical_significance.py file1 file2
import sys
import numpy as np
from numpy import mean, std, sqrt
def read_data_from_file(file_name):
with open(file_name, 'r', encoding='utf-8') as reader:
data_file = []
try:
lines = reader.readlines()
data_file = [float(line.strip()) for line in lines]
except:
print('Data format error, please check')
if len(data_file) == 0:
print('Empty file, exit')
sys.exit(0)
return data_file
def two_side_data_reader(file1_name, file2_name):
data_file1 = read_data_from_file(file1_name)
data_file2 = read_data_from_file(file2_name)
return data_file1, data_file2
def cal_cohen_d(data1, data2):
def cohen_d(x, y):
return (mean(x) - mean(y)) / sqrt((std(x) ** 2 + std(y) ** 2) / 2.0)
mean1 = np.mean(data1)
mean2 = np.mean(data2)
# print(type(mean1))
std1 = np.std(data1)
std2 = np.std(data2)
cohen = cohen_d(data1, data2)
print('Data1 [mean:%.4f, std:%.4f]' % (mean1, std1))
print('Data2 [mean:%.4f, std:%.4f]' % (mean2, std2))
print("cohen's d value = %.4f" % (cohen))
return cohen
if __name__ == '__main__':
file_1 = sys.argv[1]
file_2 = sys.argv[2]
data1, data2 = two_side_data_reader(file_1, file_2)
res = cal_cohen_d(data1, data2)