It seems difficult to resist the temptation to try
to summarise the performance of any model by one (or
a few) figures of merit. Like many others, I know
that any single measure can miss a lot that is
important, but I often succumb, especially when
the models are many and the space is short.
I am aware of the following _general_ terminology that
people use to discuss attempts to pack all the
information into one number:
factotum | index
omnibus | measure
portmanteau | statistic
Any of the terms on the left can be combined
with any of the terms on the right. I guess that
the portmanteau terminology owes a lot to Lewis
Carroll's sense of that word.
(Of course there are all sorts of _particular_
measures, R^2, AIC, BIC, etc., etc., not my
concern here.)
All these terms have been in the literature for
at least 50 years. Sometimes they are used positively
("look, this test tests for everything at once")
and sometimes negatively ("yes indeed, what a bad
idea").
Can anything add to this list, especially any
colourful (but not offensive) used by
charismatic teachers, leaders in the field,
etc.?
I am aware of the technical concept of _sufficiency_,
not the issue here as I see it.
Nick
[email protected]
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