1 - Introduction Flashcards
(17 cards)
What is data?
Observations gathered on the characteristics of interest
What is a database?
Existing archived collections of data
What does statistics consist of?
A body of methods for obtaining and analyzing data
What does statistics provide methods for?
Design, Description, Inference
What does design refer to?
Planning how to gather data
What does description refer to?
Summarizing the data obtained in the study
What does inference refer to?
Making predictions based on the data
What are statistical inferences?
Predictions made using data
What are two types of ways of analyzing data?
Description and inference
When is a statistical analysis classified as descriptive?
When the main purpose is describing data
When is a statistical analysis classified as inferential?
When the main purpose is making predictions
What is a population?
The total set of subjects of interest in a study
What is a sample?
The subset of the population on which the study collects data
What does descriptive statistics do?
Summarizes the information in a collection of data
What does inferential statistics do?
Provide predictions about a population, based on data from a sample of that population
What is a parameter?
A numerical summay of the population
What is a statistic?
A numerical summary of the sample
