information statistic A measure of disorder within a group; it is zero when all individuals within the group are identical. In information analysis (an agglomerative, hierarchical classificatory technique, devised by W. L. T. Williams and others in 1966) a hierarchy is constructed by repeatedly joining together those individuals or groups that exhibit the smallest increase in heterogeneity (disorder), and therefore the smallest change in information.

information statistic A measure of the extent to which members of a group differ from one another (i.e. of disorder); it is zero when all individuals within the group are identical. In information analysis (an agglomerative, hierarchical classificatory technique, devised by W. L. T. Williams and others, and described in 1966) a hierarchy is constructed by repeatedly joining together those individuals or groups that exhibit the smallest increase in heterogeneity (disorder), and therefore the smallest change in information.

information statistic A measure of the extent to which members of a group differ from one another (i.e. of disorder); it is zero when all individuals within the group are identical. In information analysis (an agglomerative, hierarchical classificatory technique, devised by W. L. T. Williams and others, and described in 1966) a hierarchy is constructed by repeatedly joining together those individuals or groups which exhibit the smallest increase in heterogeneity (disorder), and therefore the smallest change in information.