Chapter 1 Flashcards
xWhat is a population?
Basically the entire group
What is a sample?
Subset or part of a population to represent a population the sample is drawn from
What is a sample represented by?
Data derived from observations, outcomes, responses, measurements, or counts (scores)
A survey is conducted of all residents of an apartment building
to determine the average family size of all residents. The residents
represent a ________.
Population
All residents of an apartment building are surveyed to determine average annual income. The data are used to estimate average household income for people living in that neighborhood. The people surveyed represent a ________.
Sample
What is a parameter?
Numerical description of a measurable population characteristic
What is a statistic?
Numerical description of a sample characteristic
What does a parameter provide information on?
Whole population
A numerical measure that describes a sample characteristic is a ________.
Statistic
A numerical measure that describes an entire group of people or things is a ________.
Parameter
The average GPA of thirty students from a large community college having coffee at the student union is a ________.
Statistic
What are descriptive statistics?
Involve the organization, summarization, and display of data
What are descriptive statistics used for?
To present quantitative descriptions in a manageable form
What does descriptive statistics help us with?
Simplify large amounts of data into easier parts
What is the downside of descriptive statistics?
Basically you don’t know the why, just the data
What are inferential statistics?
Drawing conclusions about a population based on data from a collected sample (conclusions extend beyond data in hand)
What is the difference between inferential and descriptive statistics?
Inferential is generalizations about things we can’t directly measure, descriptive stats describe data we have collected
When do researchers use inferential statistics?
When it is not convenient, or possible to look at the whole population
Graduating high school seniors are ranked according to their grade averages?
Descriptive
A survey concludes that most students favor using e-books for texts.
Descriptive
Batting averages of ballplayers are posted online.
Inferential
A researcher reports that 90% of college students text during class.
Inferential
What is quantitative data?
Information about qualities
What does quantitative data tell us?
How much, or how many of something are presented as sets of numbers