Statistical Reasoning Flashcards
Statistics
Allows scientists to organize and describe data and make inferences based on data
Descriptive Statistics
Summarizes and organizes data
Frequency distribution table
Shows how often something happens
Histogram
Bar graph with no gaps to show that there are no gaps in the data
Measure of Central Tendency
A single score that represents a whole set of scores
Mean
Average number in a data set (sensitive to extremes)
Median
Middle number in a set of scores. Place data in value order and find middle of set. More accurate central tendency than mean
Mode
Most frequent value in a data set.
Normal Distribution
Bell Curve. Scores on graph are mirrored on both sides of the mean
Skewed distribution
If the curve doesn’t look normal than graph is skewed
Data to the left of median is positive, data to the right is negative
Variance
How much scores group together or how dispersed they are
Range
Represents the span of the scores in the data set
Standard Deviation
Average distance from the mean for a set of scores
Z scores
The number of standard deviations from the mean a data point is
Inferential Statistics
Allow you to interpret data and draw conclusions. Evaluate the probability that a correlation reflects a real relationship between variables.
Statistical Significance
Measure of the likelihood that the difference between groups results from a real difference rather than by chance. Lower P value = less likely results were due to chance
Meta- Analysis(Technique)
Researchers find trends in large amounts of pre existing data.
Cross-sectional study
Type of study in which people of different ages are examined at the same time
Cohort
Group of people in a study
Longitudinal Studies
Studies that follow the same group of people over periods of time
Cross-sequential Study
Individuals in the study are tested more than once over a specified period of time
