STAT 2000 Module 1

Descriptive Statistics

summarizing data (e.g., averages, percentages, graphs)

Inferential Statistics

making predictions or generalizations from a sample to a larger population using probability

Data

recorded characteristics, measurements, or observations that provide meaningful information

Variable

a characteristic or property that can take on different values

Discrete Data

countable values (usually integers)

Continuous Data

data that can take any value within a range

Nominal Data

data that categorizes without any order

Ordinal Data

data that categorizes with a meaningful order but not evenly spaced

Population

the entire group that you want ti surfy or draw conclusions about

Sample

a subset of the population that is actually observed or measured

Parameter

a descriptive measure or characteristic of the population

Statistic

a descriptive measure or characteristic of the sample

Proportion

a type of ratio that compares a part to the whole

Variability

how spread out or dispersed the data values are in a dataset

Sampling Variability

different samples from the same population typically produce statistics that vary slightly

Range

difference between the largest and smallest values

Variance

the average squared distance from the mean

Subjects

the individuals on which we collect the information

Variables

the features that we measure about those subjects

Quantitive Data

numerical data that gives us some quantity

Categorical Variables

these variables that sort and organize the data into different categories

Design

how the data is obtained

Description

summarizing the data obtained

Inference

making decisions or predictions based on the data

Census

gather data on each individual within a population

Variation

repeating the sane process may yield different results each time

Sampling Variability

variation between samples

Standard Deviation

the square root of the variance (measured in the same units as the data)

Interquartile range (IQR)

the spread of the middle 50% of the data

Cross-Sectional Study

data is collected at one point in time

Longitudinal Study

observes the same group repeatedly over a long period

Primary Data

collected f