Introduction to Statistics

Basic Concepts

Intro. to Statistics

What is Statistics?
a set of procedures and rulesfor reducing large masses of data to manageable proportions and for allowing us to draw conclusions from those data

Intro. to Statistics

What can Stats do?

Make data more manageable

Group of numbers:

6, 1, 8, 3, 5, 4, 9

Average is: 36/7 = 5 1/7 Graphs:

90 80 70 60 50 40 30 20 10 0 1st Qtr 2nd Qtr 3rd Qtr 4th Qtr East West North

Intro. to Statistics

What can Stats do?

Allow us to draw conclusions from the data

Group of numbers #1: 6, 1, 8, 3, 5, 4, 9 Average is 5 1/7 Group of numbers #2: 8, 3, 4, 2, 7, 1, 4 Average is 4

Allows us to do this objectively and quantitatively

Intro. to Statistics

Quantitative
Involves measurement Data in numerical form Answers How much questions Objective and results in unambiguous conclusions

Qualitative
Describes the nature of something Answers What or Of what kind questions Often evaluative and ambiguous

Intro. to Statistics

Qualitative Distinctions:
Good versus Bad Right versus Wrong A Lot versus A Little

Quantitative Distinctions:
5 1/7 versus 4 25% versus 50% 1 hour versus 24 hours

Basic Terminology

Summarizing versus Analyzing Descriptive Statistics Inferential Statistics

Inference from sample to population Inference from statistic to parameter Factors influencing the accuracy of a samples ability to represent a population:

Size Randomness

Basic Terminology
Size

Sample of 5 cards from a deck of 52

2 of Clubs, 10 of Diamonds, Jack of Hearts, 5 of Clubs, and 7 of Hearts

What could we conclude about the full deck from this sample about what the full deck looks like without any prior knowledge of a deck of cards? Compare this to a sample of 51/52 cards What could we conclude from this sample?

Basic Terminology
Randomness

This time lets use the same 5 card sample, but this time the deck is unshuffled (nonrandom)
2 of Clubs, 10 of Clubs, Jack of Clubs, 5 of Clubs, and 7 of Clubs

What would we conclude about the characteristics of our population (the deck) this time versus when the sample was more random (shuffled)?

Basic Terminology

Smaller/less random samples both poorly represent population of entire deck of cards
Also result in inaccurate inferences about population poor external validity

Basic Terminology

Most often, the aim of our research is not to infer characteristics of a population from our sample, but to compare two samples
I.e. To determine if a particular treatment works, we compare two groups or samples, one with the treatment and one without

Basic Terminology
We draw conclusions based on how similar the two groups are

If the treated and untreated groups are very similar, we cannot declare the treatment much of a success

Another way of putting this in terms of samples and populations is determining if our two groups/samples actually come from the same population, or two different ones

Basic Terminology

Group A (Treated) and B (Untreated) are sampled from different populations/treatment worked:

Group A Population of Well People

Group B Population of Sick People

Basic Terminology

Group A and B are sampled from the same population/treatment didnt work:
Group A Group B Population of Sick People

Basic Terminology

What if Group A (who received the Tx) were sicker then Group B (who did not receive Tx), prior to treatment? What would their scores look like after Tx?
The inability to attribute changes in the variable of interest to the manipulation poor internal validity

I.e. we cant say for sure if our experiment worked or not

Basic Terminology

Quantitative Data
Dimensional/Measurement Data versus Categorical/Frequency Count Data

Dimensional
When quantities of something are measured on a continuum Answers how much questions I.e. scores on a test, measures of weight, etc.

Basic Terminology

Categorical
When numbers of discrete entities have to be counted Gender is an example of a discrete entity you can be either male or female, and nothing else speaking of degree of maleness makes little sense Answers how many questions I.e. number of men and women, percentage of people with a given hair color

Basic Terminology

A dimensional variable can be converted into a categorical one

Convert scores on a test (0-100) into Low, Medium, and High groups 0-33 = Low; 34-66 = Medium, and 67100 = High

The groups are discrete categories (hence categorical), and you would now count how many people fall into each category

Basic Concepts

Scales of Measurement:
Nominal

labeling/classifying objects i.e. your last name, names on jerseys, social security number, etc. not technically a scale of measurement since nothing is measured labels that imply rank i.e. place in a race, military rank 1st > 2nd > 3rd and General > Lieutenant > Private doesnt say how much more one is than the other

Ordinal

Basic Concepts

Interval

Ratio

provides labels that imply exactly how much different one label is than another i.e. temperature - 15 F is 5 F more than 10 F lacks true zero point - 0 F does not represent the complete absence of heat because we have negative values of F has all of the above, plus a true zero point i.e. height, weight, Kelvin 0 lbs represents a true lack of weight can talk about 16 being four times 4 , which is a proportion /ratio, hence the name of the scale - x = 4y often very difficult to identify in practice if a true zero point exists

Basic Concepts

Scales of Measurement
Nominal Qualitative

Ordinal
Interval Ratio Quantitative

Basic Concepts

Variables
Discrete versus Continuous Variables

same as Categorical versus Dimensional variables

Not to be confused with discreet variables, that people simply do not think should be talked about

Basic Concepts
Constant Variable

Qualitative

Quantitative

Categorical/ Discrete Nominal Ordinal

Dimensional/ Continuous Interval Ratio

Basic Concepts

Variables versus Constants

A constant has only one possible value that it can assume

A variable can assume many possible values

= 3.1415923536 X=?

Independent Variables (IVs) versus Dependent Variables (DVs)

IV manipulated, DV measured Whether a variable is a DV or IV depends upon the design of the experiment

Basic Concepts

Variables
In true experiments, the effects of one variable (the IV) are manipulated to see the effects on another variable (the DV) All other factors other than the IV are kept constant so that we can attribute the change to the IV and not to something else Example: Influence of direct heat on the temperature of water

IV = presence or absence of heat DV = temperature of water