Introductory Statistics - Chapter 1 Fundamentals

Flashcards based on Chapter 1 introductory statistics lecture notes covering foundational definitions, types of statistics, and types of studies and variables.

What is statistics?

The science of collecting, organizing, summarizing, and analyzing information to draw conclusions or answer questions. It is also about providing a measure of confidence in any conclusions.

What is a statistic?

a numerical summary of a sample.

What is a parameter?

numerical summary of a population.

What is a sample in statistics?

A sample is a subset of the group of individuals that is being studied.

What is a population in statistics?

the entire group of individuals to be studied.

What is an individual in a statistical study?

a person or object that is a member of the group being studied.

What is descriptive statistics?

the organizing and summarizing of data through tables, graphs, and numerical summaries.

What is inferential statistics?

uses methods that take results from a sample and extends them to the population, and measures the reliability of the result.

When does confounding occur in a study?

when the effects of two or more explanatory variables are not separated. Therefore, any relation that may exist between an explanatory variable and the response variable may be due to some other variable not accounted for in the study.

What is a confounding variable?

A confounding variable is an explanatory variable that was considered in a study whose effect cannot be distinguished from a second explanatory variable in the study.

What is a lurking variable?

A lurking variable is an explanatory variable that was not considered in a study, but that affects the value of the response variable in the study. In addition, this variable is typically related to other explanatory variables in the study.

What is an observational study?

An observational study involves the researcher measuring the value of the response variable without attempting to influence the value of either the response or explanatory variables. That is, the researcher observes the behavior of individuals in the study and records the values of the explanatory and response variables.

What is a designed experiment?

A designed experiment is where a researcher randomly assigns the individuals in a study to groups, intentionally manipulated the value of an explanatory variable, controls other explanatory variables at fixed values, and then records the value of the response variable for each individual.