STAT 100 - Key Concepts

Vocabulary flashcards covering the key introductory concepts of STAT 100 based on the provided guide.

Estimate

A number or percentage used to describe something about a population.

Population of Interest

The whole group of people or things you want information about.

Attribute

A characteristic or piece of information being measured about an observation.

Rating Scale

Categories that have a meaningful order.

Observation

One person, object, place, or event in a dataset. Usually, one row = one observation.

Tidy Data Table

A data table format where each row represents one observation and each column represents one attribute.

Causal Claim

A claim saying one thing causes another thing to change.

Causal Factor (Cause)

The thing believed to cause the change.

Outcome (Effect)

The thing that is affected or changed.

Quantitative Data

Data that represents a number or amount.

Categorical Data

Data that places something into a group or category.

Time-Series Data

Data collected or measured over time.

Reliability

How much you can trust a measurement to give dependable information.

Validation

Rules used to PREVENT invalid data from being entered.

Data Cleaning

Finding and handling invalid or incorrect values AFTER data has been collected.

Validation vs. Data Cleaning

Validation is used to PREVENT bad data from entering, whereas Data Cleaning is used to FIX bad data afterward.