The hot (invisible?) hand: can time sequence patterns of success/failure in sports be modeled as repeated random

Gur Yaari1, Shmuel Eisenmann

  • 1Department of Pathology, Yale School of Medicine, Yale University, New Haven, Connecticut, United States of America. gur.yaari@yale.edu

Plos One
|October 15, 2011
PubMed

Related Concept Videos

Wald-Wolfowitz Runs Test I01:17

Wald-Wolfowitz Runs Test I

The Wald-Wolfowitz test, also known as the runs test, is a nonparametric statistical test used to assess the randomness of a sequence of two different types of elements (e.g., positive/negative values, successes/failures). It examines whether the order of the elements in a sequence is random or if there is a pattern or trend present. This nonparametric test applies to any ordered data despite the population and sample data distribution, even if a higher sample size is available.
The test works...
Random Error01:04

Random Error

Random or indeterminate errors originate from various uncontrollable variables, such as variations in environmental conditions, instrument imperfections, or the inherent variability of the phenomena being measured. Usually, these errors cannot be predicted, estimated, or characterized because their direction and magnitude often vary in magnitude and direction even during consecutive measurements. As a result, they are difficult to eliminate. However, the aggregate effect of these errors can be...
Bias01:22

Bias

Bias refers to any tendency that prevents a question from being considered unprejudiced. In research, bias occurs when one outcome or answer is selected or encouraged over others in sampling or testing. Bias can occur during any research phase, including study design, data collection, analysis, and publication.
In statistics, a sampling bias is created when a sample is collected from a population, and some members of the population are not as likely to be chosen as others (remember, each member...
Random Variables01:09

Random Variables

A random variable is a single numerical value that indicates the outcome of a procedure. The concept of random variables is fundamental to the probability theory and was introduced by a Russian mathematician, Pafnuty Chebyshev, in the mid-nineteenth century.
Uppercase letters such as X or Y denote a random variable. Lowercase letters like x or y denote the value of a random variable. If X is a random variable, then X is written in words, and x is given as a number.
For example, let X = the...
Geometric Sequences01:30

Geometric Sequences

In systems where values diminish by a constant proportion at each stage, the resulting sequence follows a geometric structure. Each new value in the sequence is obtained by applying a fixed multiplier to the preceding term. This regular, proportional decline type is often used to represent processes involving gradual loss, such as energy dissipation or reduction in amplitude over time.When analyzing the total effect of such a process across unlimited iterations, the series of values is referred...
Probability Distributions01:32

Probability Distributions

The probability of a random variable x  is the likelihood of its occurrence. A probability distribution represents the probabilities of a random variable using a formula, graph, or table. There are two types of probability distribution– discrete probability distribution and continuous probability distribution.
A discrete probability distribution is a probability distribution of discrete random variables. It can be categorized into binomial probability distribution and Poisson probability...