INSC-20153 Statistical Analysis - Lecture 1 Vocabulary

Flashcards covering key terms, biases, analytics types, and foundational concepts from Lecture 1.

Apophenia

The human brain's tendency to see patterns even when they do not exist.

Survivorship Bias

A statistical error caused by looking only at 'survivors' (such as successful products or returning planes) while ignoring non-survivors, leading to false conclusions.

Abraham Wald

The statistician who identified survivorship bias in WWII bomber armor placement, recommending armor be added to areas without bullet holes because hit planes in those clean areas were non-survivors.

Insight (in Statistics)

The process of converting raw data into meaningful information.

Probability (in Statistics)

The measurement of the likelihood of future events or risk.

Validation (in Statistics)

Providing a logical foundation for business strategy.

Population

The complete set of interest in a statistical study, which can often be too big, too slow, or too expensive to study in full.

Sample

A manageable, fast, and affordable subset of a population used as a research tool.

Descriptive Statistics

Statistical methods focused on organizing, summarizing, and presenting data from a specific sample or dataset in a meaningful way.

Inferential Statistics

Statistical methods used to make generalizations, predictions, and decisions about a larger population based on a sample dataset.

Absolute Change

A mathematical framing of data that focuses on the direct numerical difference, such as describing a shift from 3\text{\textpercent} to 6\text{\textpercent} as a 3-point increase.

Relative Change

A mathematical framing of data that focuses on the percentage change relative to the initial value, such as describing a shift from 3\text{\textpercent} to 6\text{\textpercent} as a 100\text{\textpercent} increase.

Descriptive Analytics

An analytics category focused on summarizing raw data to answer 'What’s already happened?'

Diagnostic Analytics

An analytics category focused on understanding data to answer 'Why did it happen?'

Predictive Analytics

An analytics category focused on forecasting patterns to answer 'What is likely to happen?'

Prescriptive Analytics

An analytics category focused on determining recommendations to answer 'What should I do about it?'

Analysis ToolPak

A built-in suite of statistical procedures available in every version of Excel under Data Analysis.