McNemar test for N*N contingency tables

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SUMMARY

The discussion centers on applying the McNemar test to a 4x4 contingency table to assess symmetry. The user initially proposed creating a symmetrized version of the observed matrix and using a Chi-squared goodness-of-fit test, but later discovered that this approach is documented in statistical literature. The correct degrees of freedom for the test should be calculated as N(N-1)/2, which equals 6 for a 4x4 matrix. This indicates that the user’s method aligns with established statistical practices for testing symmetry in larger contingency tables.

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  • Understanding of contingency tables and their structures
  • Familiarity with the Chi-squared goodness-of-fit test
  • Knowledge of McNemar's test and its applications
  • Basic statistical concepts such as degrees of freedom
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  • Research the generalization of McNemar's test for larger contingency tables
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Statisticians, data analysts, and researchers working with contingency tables, particularly those interested in testing symmetry in multi-dimensional datasets.

mnb96
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Hi,

I have a 4x4 contingency table that by visual inspection looks approximately symmetric, in the sense that for each entry aij we approximately have a_{ij} = a_{ji} for i,j=1,2,3,4.
I would like to know how can I perform a statistical test for symmetry.

An attempt I made was to treat the whole contingency table as a 4x4 matrix O, and create its symmetrized version E=(O+O^T)/2. At this point I could simply apply a Chi2 goodness-of-fit test (with 9 degrees of freedom) between the observed distribution O and the expected one E.

What makes me suspicious is that I haven't found this kind of approach anywhere. Instead, only the simplest case of 2x2 tables is reported in the literature under the name of McNemar's test.

It's reasonable to think that if the generalization of McNemar's test was so trivial, then somebody else would have "invented" it. This makes me suspect that my approach is incorrect.
 
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I might have found the answer to my question: Apparently the test I proposed already exists under the name of https://www.statistik.tu-dortmund.de/fileadmin/user_upload/Lehrstuehle/MSind/SFB_475/2005/tr29-05.pdf (see first formula on page 4).
 
...just the number of degrees of freedom in my original post is incorrect: it should be N(N-1)/2 = 6, i.e. the number of dof in a NxN symmetric matrix.
 

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