Using statistical testing in the evaluation of retrieval experiments

Abstract

The standard strategies for evaluation based on precision and recall are examined and their relative advantages and disadvantages are discussed. In particular, it is suggested that relevance feedback be evaluated from the perspective of the user. A number of different statistical tests are described for determining if differences in performance between retrieval methods are significant. These tests have often been ignored in the past because most are based on an assumption of normality which is not strictly valid for the standard performance measures. However, one can test this assumption using simple diagnostic plots, and if it is a poor approximation, there are a number of non-parametric alternatives.