Okuzeka
Statistics vocabulary · Hypothesis Testing

Post hoc test

Meaning in statistics, with examples

nounCommon term

In statistics, post hoc test means: A follow-up test run after a significant overall result, such as an ANOVA, to find out exactly which groups differ from each other.

In Turkish: post hoc test, çoklu karşılaştırma testi, sonradan karşılaştırma testi

How it is used

Common examples are Tukey's HSD, Bonferroni and Scheffé tests, which adjust for the many comparisons being made. 'Post hoc' is Latin for 'after this'. The phrase is also used for analyses that were not planned in advance, which should be reported as exploratory.

Example sentences

  1. Tukey post hoc tests showed that Group C differed from both A and B.

  2. The ANOVA was significant, so we ran a post hoc test to locate the differences.

Common collocations

  • post hoc comparisons
  • Tukey's HSD
  • Bonferroni correction
  • run post hoc tests
  • ANOVAShort for analysis of variance: a family of tests that compare the means of three or more groups at once by comparing variation between the groups with variation within them.
  • type I errorRejecting a null hypothesis that is actually true, in other words concluding that an effect exists when it does not; a false positive.
  • significance levelThe threshold, chosen before a test, below which a p-value is treated as statistically significant; it is also the accepted risk of a Type I error.
  • t-testA hypothesis test that compares means: one group's mean with a fixed value, the means of two independent groups, or two measurements of the same people.

More terms: Hypothesis Testing

Practise with graded reading

Reading at the right level is the fastest way to make new words stick. Pick free English books by level: