Definition:Yates's Correction for Continuity

Definition

Let $C$ be a contingency table with $2$ rows and $2$ columns.

Let a $\chi$-squared test for lack of association be applied to $C$.

Yates's correction is the operation of subtracting $0 \cdotp 5$ from the absolute value of each difference $\size {O_i - E_i}$ before squaring.

Hence this $\chi$-squared test is an approximation to Fisher's exact test.

Also see

• Definition:Chi-Squared Distribution

• Results about Yates's correction for continuity can be found here.

Source of Name

This entry was named for Frank Yates.

Sources

• 1998: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (2nd ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): chi-squared test: 2.
• 2008: David Nelson: The Penguin Dictionary of Mathematics (4th ed.) ... (previous) ... (next): chi-squared test: 2.