PSY Chapter 1 Module 3

statistical literacy

understanding statistics and what they mean

descriptive statistics

using statistical methods to provide a simple summary of data

mode

the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution

mean

the arithmetic average of a distribution

median

the middle score in a distribution

range

the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution

standard deivation

a computed measure of how much scores vary around the mean score

normal curve

a symmetrical bell-shaped curve that describes the distribution of data. about 95% of the data falls within two standard deviations.

inferential statistics

using statistical methods to interpret data meaningfully

statistically significant

a statistical statement of how likely it is that an obtained result (such as a difference between samples) occurred by chance, assuming there is no difference between the populations being studied

meta-analysis

a statistical procedure for analyzing the results of multiple studies to reach an overall conclusion