Re: Historical query regarding SPSS functionality

Posted by Jon Peck on Dec 31, 2020; 9:24pm
URL: http://spssx-discussion.165.s1.nabble.com/Historical-query-regarding-SPSS-functionality-tp5740087p5740089.html

It is true that the Fisher-Freeman-Halton and McNeman-Bowker tests depend on the StatXact code via the METHOD subcommand of CROSSTABS and require the Exact Tests option.  The Command Syntax Reference manual started listing new and updated syntax as of SPSS version 13.  This subcommand is not mentioned as a change, so it would have been added in version 12 or earlier, but I don't have an exact date.  I no longer have access to the SPSS code base, which would have an exact record of the changes.  My recollection is that integrating the StatXact code, which was fortunately not my task, was a nightmare due to the way that code was written.

On Thu, Dec 31, 2020 at 1:49 PM Michael Palij <[hidden email]> wrote:

I think that Jon Peck will have to join this thread in order to correct errors or clarify

points in my presentation.  That being said, consider the following:

(1)  If I am not mistaken, prior to the 1990s, SPSS was not able to perform "exact tests"

that are represented by the McNemar-Bowker test and the Fisher-Freeman-Halton.

This was a general limitation of the major statistical software packages (e.g., SAS)

because of hardware and programming limitations.

(2)  The statisticians Cyrus Mehta and Nitin Patel had worked on computer programming

of exact tests and developed the software StatXact (misc statistical tests) and LogXact

(exact logistic regression).  Their algorithms were able to overcome the limitations of

previous implementations and was used in the development of commercial statistical

software.  Version 1 of the PC version of StatXact was released around 1990 and here

are a couple reviews of the early software:

Mehta, C. (1991). StatXact: A Statistical Package for Exact Nonparametric Inference.

The American Statistician, 45(1), 74-75. doi:10.2307/2685246

Sprent, P., & Mehta, C. (1990). Journal of the Royal Statistical Society. Series C

(Applied Statistics), 39(3), 391-395. doi:10.2307/2347397

StatXact was developed on mainframe and similar computers but StatXact was

developed specifically for MS-DOS systems.  Subsequent versions continued

to be available across different computer platforms.

(3)  What is significant about Mehta and Patel's work is that it was easier for

the major statistical packages to either provide the capability to call StatXact

(if it were on the computer system) or the algorithms could be licensed into

the software.  I believe that SAS was the first system to incorporate M&P's

exact test procedure.  By 1995 SPSS provide an exact tests module and

incorporated some of the tests into existing procedures (e.g., crosstabs;

not sure which version of SPSS this was).  Hilbe (2004) wrote a review of

SPSS ver 12 in which he focuses on the logistic regression procedure

(apparently the LogXact software was not used by SPSS) and the Exact

tests module -- he covers some of the history between SPSS and StatXact

which might be useful.  See:

Hilbe, J. (2004). A Review of SPSS 12.01, Part 2. The American Statistician,

58(2), 168-171. Retrieved December 31, 2020, from http://www.jstor.org/stable/27643530

(4)  Jon Peck might know if StatXact code was used in SPSS in version before

version 12 and may be able to give a better/more accurate/exact? date (I bet

it is between 1993 to 1995).

I am curious though as to why you are interested in this question.  I would also

suggest searching Jstor (which has ASA journal and other relevant statistical

journals) for reviews of software and related issues.

-Mike Palij

New York University

On Thu, Dec 31, 2020 at 1:26 PM MACDOUGALL Margaret <[hidden email]> wrote:

Season’s greetings!

 

I have a historical question! Is anyone able to advise me on when functionality to run the following tests first became available in SPSS:

 

• the McNemar-Bowker test as an extension to the McNemar test

 

and

 

• the Fisher-Freeman-Halton test as an extension to Fisher’s Exact test?

 

Thanks in advance

Best wishes
Margaret

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Dr Margaret MacDougall
Medical Statistician and Researcher in Education
(Senior Lecturer)
Centre for Population Health Sciences
Usher Institute
University of Edinburgh Medical School
Teviot Place
Edinburgh EH8 9AG
Email: [hidden email]

https://www.ed.ac.uk/profile/margaret-macdougall

 

The University of Edinburgh is a charitable body, registered in Scotland, with registration number SC005336.

===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD

--
===================== To manage your subscription to SPSSX-L, send a message to [hidden email] (not to SPSSX-L), with no body text except the command. To leave the list, send the command SIGNOFF SPSSX-L For a list of commands to manage subscriptions, send the command INFO REFCARD