2 - BASIC TERMS IN LABORATORY STATISTICS Flashcards
things that we measure, count, or otherwise delineate
variable
describe categories that do not have a specific order to them
nominal variable
all its variables in a specific order, beyond just naming them
ordinal variable
one where the difference between two values is meaningful
interval variable
is where a variable can take on only a limited number of values, usually called categories. (or characters)
nominal scale
Is where the variable takes on specific values that have some inherent order such as magnitude but without equivalent distances between categories
Ordinal Scale
Is where a variable takes on values in a quantitative range with defined differences between points
Interval Scale
It is already determined and so is not influenced by other factors
Ex: Age, gender, temperature, & time
independent variable
- These are those things that might change in response to the independent variable
- Ex: blood glucose concentration, enzyme activities, and the presence or absence of malignancy.
Dependent Variable
It is a spread of data in which elements are distributed symmetrically around the mean, with most values close to the center.
Gaussian (normal) distribution
These are statistical measures that are calculated based on the assumption that the data points follow a Gaussian distribution and include parameters such as mean, variance, and standard deviation.
Parametric statistics
- Mean, Median, Mode
- Standard Deviation
- Coefficient of Variation
- Variance
descriptive statistics
- Describe what the magnitude of results is and how the data points differ from one another
- Meaning behind the numbers.
Descriptive Statistics
A measure of how far apart they are dispersed from one another.
Central Tendency
measures of central tendency
mean
median
mode
- It is calculated by adding the values of all the individual data points and dividing that sum by the total number of data points.
- Most common
Mean
- “Middle”
- Used when the data are skewed so its calculation will not be affected by outliers.
Median
- Rarely used; most frequent observation
- It is used to describe data with two centers (bimodal)
Mode
measures of spread
range
standard deviation
coefficient of variation
variance
SD index
- Simplest expression of spread of distribution
- It is the difference of highest and lowest score in a data.
Range
- It is a measure of dispersion of values from the mean.
- Helps describe the normal curve. A measure of distribution range.
Standard Deviation
- A percentile expression of the mean
- An index of precision
Coefficient of Variation
- Called the SD squared
- Measure of variability
- It determines significant difference between groups of data.
Variance
- Is the difference between the value of a data point and the mean value divided by the group’s SD.
SD Index