MCNEMAR SIGNIFICANCE TEST OF CHANGE McNemar test has been developed to evaluate the significance of the effect of change.

Like sign and signed rank tests, it has been proposed for use in cases where either nominal or ordinal scale is used for measurement. A holistic view of the test and its method suggests that it may be considered to be one of the tools or instruments that are available for the application of comparative method of analysis. The test has basically been developed for application to the cases where the status before and after has to be analyzed in order to evaluate the effect of change introduced either as a part of research e!perimental design, or it occurs occurred autonomously. The "before and after# syndrome involves the lapse of time, off necessity. $ut the test may be e!tended and applied to cases even at a given point of time, like the comparative method, if one case involves no change whereas the other involves change or factor of a specific nature. Like sign and signed rank tests, the McNemar test is also designed for interrelated samples. %ach individual item has two responses states, one for before and another for after. These may be considered as separate but interrelated samples. %ach sub&ect sampled item may be used as its own control factor, while the evaluation involves ordinal or nominal scale of measurement. 'ne may also think of transforming cardinally measured values into nominal ones. (or e!ample, high and low income levels and movement from one to another income group and this may be helpful in evaluating the prediction of say )arteto#s law of income distribution. The law states that the lower the income that one has more difficult it is to move to the higher income group. At two points of time. 'ne may e!amine the fre*uency of persons who moved from one to another or remained in the same group under the impact of, say, target oriented employment generation program. %!amples of cases suitable for its application are i+ meetings, news paper editorials, pamphlets, personal visits, ii+ voters# preferences and choices among the candidates before the canvassing commences and after it ends, iii+ benefits, derived from the ac*uisition of management degree and diploma through distance mode education -Monica .upta, /001+, iv+ development benefits of a pro&ect to different segments of the population of the command area -Narmada 2am+, v+ benefits of migration to the economy of destination -)rakash 3 Mohanty, /004+, vi+ effect of education on the ideological commitment of the students, vii+ effect of marketing strategy on the sales of a company and so on. 5t is obvious that these are illustrations of cases where people act as their own control factors and a nominal scale of "yes# and "no#, or "presence and absence#, or order scale like "high and low# may be used.

Procedure To test the significance of the effect of an observed change by this techni*ue, a /!/ table, having 4 cells, is re*uired to be set up. The cells will contain the fre*uencies of responses from the same individuals, indicating whether the person has or has not been influenced by the introduction of a factor influence designed to affect him her. The diagonal cells will show the fre*uencies of those who have shifted their position under the influence of the factor change at work. The off diagonal fre*uencies will show the number of those who have not shifted altered their state position before even after the introduction of change or the emergence of new factor at work. This gives tow6way classification of responses into 4 cells. 5f the fre*uencies in the diagonal cells are denoted by A and 2 and those in off6diagonal cells by $ and 7, the table may appear as that given below After 8 9 $efore 8 7 2 A $ 9

:here diagonal cells show the cases in which change occurs between "before and after# states. The off6diagonal cells show the fre*uency of responses involving no change in the two states. The direction of change is two fold; from positive to negative, or from for pro against anti. Alternatively, the alteration in position may be from negative or anti opposition to for pro. Accordingly, the table has been headed by <ve and 9ve at the top and 9ve and <ve at the side ways. The test apparently overlooks to direction of change and magnitude of change though the change is measured by the cell fre*uencies. All respondents who indicate a change in their responses from "before the after# states are thus tallied in the diagonal cells. 5f the response is altered from 9 -favour+ to < -not favour+, fre*uencies are depicted in the top left cell as. All responses, involving change from <-not favour+ to 9-favour+ are shown in the right hand bottom diagonal cell as 2.

As against this, if there is no change from 9ve and so remains 9ve, then it is shown in off6 diagonal cell as $. 5f there is no change from <ve to remain <ve after the change, then the fre*uencies are clubbed under off6diagonal cell as 7. Thus, A92 is the total number of responses involving change either from 9ve to <ve, or negative to positive, whereas the total number of responses involving no change either from <ve or from positive is , $97. Thous, $97 is the total of no6changers. Assumption for null hypothesis 5t is assumed that the change is random, implying that =-A92+ will move from 9ve to <ve and other half will shift from <ve to 9ve. >o the null hypothesis ? 0 is that the e!pected number of fre*uencies of both these cases shall be e*ual, and hence, %-@+ A )B@BAB / -A92+ A )/@/ CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC. -B+ :here @B and @/ are the respective values -fre*uencies+ of the two cases of changing from i+ 9ve to <ve, and ii+ <ve to 9ve. ) B and )/ are the probabilities of change in the specified direction respectively. The statistical significance of change, irrespective of its direction can then be evaluated by / test if the cell fre*uencies are not small -less than D+ since / is meant for large samples. 5f the cell fre*uencies are small, then, like in case of sign test, binomial distribution may be used. The value of / as usual for this test shall be given by

/ =
i

-Oi E i + / Ei

CCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCCC -/+

:here ' and % are the observed and e!pected values fre*uences. The formula has to be reconstructed for this test as follows;
-Oi E i + / E i = A, D i

/ =

CCCCCCCCCCCCC..C. -E+

The range of summation is only over A and 2 rather than all the cells. The reason is that the purpose of study in this case is the evaluation of significance of change rather than no6change. $ut the off diagonal fre*uencies pertain only to no change in the status "before and after# the introduction of a particular factor. >ubstitution of the values of 'i and %i in /, we get

/ =

G A B / - A + D+F / G D B / - A + D +F / + B / G A + DF B / - A + D+
/ /

- A D+ - A D+ / + / / = A+ D A+ D / /
= - A D+ A+D
/

CCCCCCCCC.CCCCCC. -4+

The distribution has B degree of freedom. >ampling distribution under ?0 is, therefore, e!pected to appro!imate the / distribution. Hates 7orrection for 7ontinuity The above appro!imation of sampling distribution to / may need some correction for continuity because the continuous / distribution is used to appro!imate an observed discrete sampling distribution. There is no continuity of values between change or no6change. $oth these are *ualitative attributes and are &ust for classifying the responses. 5f all the e!pected fre*uencies are small and less than D, above appro!imation becomes still more crude. This error may be plugged by yate#s correction for continuity. 5f yate#s correction is effected then with this correction, the formula becomes

[ A D B] =
A+D

CCCCCCCCCCCC.. -D+

:ith B degree of freedom. This correction involves the subtraction of unity. (rom the absolute difference of A and 2 before the difference is s*uared up. The value of / , as calculated from 4 or D may be compared with the table value for B degree of freedom at the specified probability level. 5f the calculated value of / is e*ual to or greater than the table value at the given probability level with B d.f., the inference shall be that a statistically "significant effect# of change has been suggested by the empirical evidence. 5f, however, the calculated value of / is less than table value of / for B d.f. At the given probability level, then the null hypothesis ? 0 is accepted. 5t may be inferred that the effect of change does not differ from zero. >ince the test procedure overlooks the off6 diagonal fre*uencies of no6change, one tailed test is suggested which re*uires the division of table value of the probability by /. %!ercise;

5n educational e!periments, it has generally been observed that the children tend to mi! more with adults their other children whom they do not know. $ut with the lapse of time, the feeling of strangeness disappears and they mi! more with other children than adults in the school. The following table gives responses /D children of a class in school 'b&ect of initiation on first day 'b&ect of 5nitiation of E0th 2ay 7hild Adult B4 4 E 4

Adult 7hild

(ind if there is perceptible change in children#s initiation, table shows that, AAB4 where interaction changed from adult to other children and 2AB4, where the number of children whose interaction changed from children to adults. >imilarly, $A4 and 7AE refer to the fre*uencies where no change in :e have to consider those cases which involve change from adults to children and from children to adult initiation. Ising the e*uation D, we get
/ =
- B4 4 B+ / B4 + 4 = JX J J = = 4.D. BK /

The table shows that the probability of getting a value of / greater than 4.D is 0.0/ which gives a value of / as D.4B. (or the application of one tailed test, either for evaluating ?0 or ?B, the probability )A.0D for testing the significance has to be halved; )AB /, )A.0/D. As already noted, the probability of / AD.4BL4.D is 0.0/D which is less than 0.0/D. ?ence, the null hypothesis ? 0 has to be re&ected. The alternative hypothesis hB that there is perceptible change in the initiation behaviour of children is accepted on the basis of empirical support. References $owker, A.?. -BJ4K+ A Test for >ymmetry in 7ontingency Tables, M ournal of American Statical Association, Nol. 4E, pp. DO/6DO4. McNemar, P. -BJ4O+ Note on >ampling %rror of The 2ifference $etween 7orrelated )roportions or )ercentages, Psychometrika, Nol. B/, )p.BDE6BDO. McNemar, P -BJDD+ Psychological Statistics, /nd %d., New Hork, :iley. >iegel, >idney -BJD1+ Non Parametric Statistics, Mcgraw ?ill.