Confidence Intervals

These flashcards cover key vocabulary and concepts related to confidence intervals in statistics, providing definitions for essential terms discussed in the lecture.

Confidence Interval (CI)

A range of values within which we can be fairly certain that our population mean occurs.

Standard Error of the Mean (SEM)

A measure used to calculate the range of scores around the sample mean in which the population mean is likely to be.

Critical Value (CV)

A value used to multiply by the SEM to create a confidence interval, dependent on the chosen confidence level (e.g., z-values for 95% or 99%).

95% Confidence Interval

An interval estimated with 95% certainty that the population mean falls within this range.

99% Confidence Interval

An interval estimated with 99% certainty that the population mean falls within this range.

Hypothesis Testing

A statistical method involving an all-or-none decision to reject or not reject the null hypothesis.

Sample Mean (M)

The average value from a sample, used as a starting point for calculating the confidence interval.

Alpha Level (α)

The threshold used to determine statistical significance, where values such as .05 and .01 correspond to confidence levels of 95% and 99% respectively.

Population Mean

The average of a variable for the entire population from which a sample is drawn.

Margin of Error

The range within which the true population parameter is expected to fall, calculated as a percentage of the sample statistic.