Testing Uniformity on the Circle using Spacings when Data are Rounded

Oregon Convention Center 

Tests for uniformity on the circle based on spacings, such as the Rao's spacing test, assume that the data are measured on a continuous scale. In practice however, recorded observations are often rounded values, ignoring which can result in incorrect inference, especially if the degree of rounding is quite severe or if the sample size is large. In this article, we propose a simple modification to the rounded data that allows us to continue to use the Rao's spacing test and its available critical values, without affecting the probability of Type I error. In support of the theoretical justification, we provide simulation studies to demonstrate how our proposed method works and evaluate its performance.

circular data

spacings

rounding

test for uniformity

Rao's spacing test 

Section on Nonparametric Statistics