Week 7 Descriptive & inferential stats Flashcards
What is statistics?
Practice or science of collecting & analysing numerical data in large quantities, especially to make inferences on a population based on a representative sample
Descriptive stats
Make descriptions & summaries of population through numbers,graphs: central tendency, data spread, count, proportion, skewness etc
Inferential stats
Provide meaningful inferences/conclusion on population based on data collected from a sample, to make generalisations & predictions
What are the types of statistics?
- Descriptive
- Inferential
What are the measures of central tendency?
Mean, Median, Mode
When is mean usually used?
Suitable for symmetric distribution, often with SD
When is median usually used?
Suitable for skewed distribution, often with IQR
Why is median most used in skewed distribution?
It is less sensitive to extreme values unlike mean where it is pulled with the direction of skew
What is variance?
Average of squared differences of each data point from mean, squared unit of mean
What is standard deviation?
Square root of a variance
What does a small & large SD mean?
Small - data points are closer around the mean
Large - data points are further to mean
What does small & large variance mean?
Small - data are close to mean & each other
Large - data are far from mean & each other
What is the empirical rule?
68% - within 1 SD from mean
95% - within 2 SD from mean
99.7% - within 3 SD from mean
What is the purpose of inferential stats?
To generalise sample characteristics to population parameters where they are just estimations & have to account for inaccuracies & errors using confidence interval (CI)
What is confidence interval?
a range of values where the true mean lies