Articles on optional stopping

Error Spending in Sequential Testing Explained

Sequential Hypothesis Testing with Efficacy and Futility Bound

Sequential analysis of experimental data from A/B tests has been quite prominent in recent years due to the myriad of Bayesian solutions offered by big industry players. However, this type of sequential analysis is not sequential testing proper as these solutions have generally abandoned the idea of testing and therefore error control, substituting it for […] Read more…

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Analysis of 115 A/B Tests: Average Lift is 4%, Most Lack Statistical Power

Observed Percent Change Significant

Oct 2022 update: A newer, much larger and likely less biased meta analysis of 1,001 tests is now available! What can you learn from 115 publicly available A/B tests? Usually, not much, since in most cases you would be looking at case studies with very basic data about what was tested and the outcome of […] Read more…

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5 Reasons to Go Bayesian in AB Testing – Debunked

Frequentist vs Bayesian A/B Testing

As someone who spent a good deal of time on trying to figure out how to run A/B tests properly and efficiently, I was intrigued to find a slide from a presentation by VWO®’s data scientist Chris Stucchio, where he goes over the main reasons that caused him and the VWO® team to consider and […] Read more…

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The Bane of AB Testing: Reaching Statistical Significance

Illusory Results AB Testing

Now, this is not a new topic on this blog. I’ve discussed the issue of optional stopping based on “achieving” or “reaching” statistical significance in my Why Every Internet Marketer Should be a Statistician post more than two years ago and others have touched on it as well – both before and after me. However, the issue […] Read more…

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Bayesian AB Testing is Not Immune to Optional Stopping Issues

Fantasy vs real world in bayesian ab testing

Fantasy vs the Real World: Naive Bayesian AB Testing vs Proper Statistical Inference This post is addressed at a certain camp of proponents and practitioners of A/B testing based on Bayesian statistical methods, who claim that outcome-based optional stopping, often called data peeking or data-driven stopping, has no effect on the statistics and thus inferences […] Read more…

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