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Jackknife Average

This demo shows how to create jackknife (leave-one-out) averages for robust statistical testing of ERP latency measures.

What is Jackknife Averaging?

The jackknife technique creates N grand averages from N participants, where each average excludes one participant. This produces smoother waveforms with clearly defined peaks, enabling reliable measurement of onset or peak latencies that would be noisy in individual-participant data.

Why Use It?

Standard ERP peak latency measures are unreliable in noisy single-participant waveforms. The jackknife method:

  • Produces cleaner waveforms by averaging many participants

  • Enables latency measurement on smooth grand-average-like waveforms

  • Requires a simple correction to the t-statistic: t_corrected = t / (n − 1)

Key Functions

FunctionPurpose
jackknife_average(erps)Single-condition jackknife from a vector of ERPs
jackknife_average(file_pattern)Batch jackknife across participant files

Reference

Miller, Patterson, & Ulrich (1998). Jackknife-based method for measuring LRP onset latency differences. Psychophysiology, 35, 99–115.

Workflow Summary

Single-Condition Jackknife

  • Create leave-one-out averages from a vector of participant ERPs

Batch Processing

  • Process all participant files and save jackknife averages

Typical Pipeline

  • Calculate LRP → Jackknife average → Measure onset latency → Apply correction to t-test

Code Examples

Show Code
julia
# Demo: Jackknife Averaging
# Shows how to create leave-one-out (jackknife) averages for statistical
# testing of ERP latency measures.

using EegFun
# Note: EegFun.example_path() resolves bundled example data paths.
# When using your own data, simply pass the file path directly, e.g.:
# dat = EegFun.read_raw_data("/path/to/your/data.bdf")

# TODO

See Also