Exam 2 Study Guide Flashcards
What is Statistical Inference?
Draw conclusions about population parameters using sample statistics.
What is a Parameter?
A measurement on a population.
What is a Statistic?
A measurement on a sample.
What two questions should we ask to identify the parameter in inference?
- How many variables are being measured (one or two)?
- What type of data do we have (categorical or quantitative)?
What parameter is used for one quantitative variable?
μ, the population mean.
What parameter is used for one categorical variable?
p, the population proportion.
What is the parameter for two categorical variables?
The difference between population proportions, p1 – p2.
What is the parameter for two categorical groups measured with quantitative data?
The difference between population means, μ1 - μ2.
Are parameters fixed values?
Yes, parameters are fixed values but often unknown.
What do statistics do when different samples are taken?
Statistics vary from sample to sample.
What is a Sampling Distribution?
Distribution of all statistics calculated from all samples of the same size, n, collected from a population.
What is required for constructing sampling distributions?
All samples must be collected randomly.
What shape does the sampling distribution of the sample proportion take with a large enough sample?
Bell-shaped and symmetric.
What is the center of the sampling distribution of the sample proportion?
The population proportion, p.
What happens to the standard error as sample size n increases?
The standard error decreases.
What shape does the sampling distribution of the sample mean take if the population is normal?
Normal.
What is the center of the sampling distribution of the sample mean?
The population mean, μ.
What is a Confidence Interval?
An interval computed from sample data that captures the parameter for a specified proportion of all samples.
What does a confidence interval provide?
- A range of plausible values for a population parameter.
- A confidence level.
What does a 95% confidence interval interpretation mean?
We are 95% confident that the interval captures the true population parameter.
What is the formula for a Confidence Interval (CI)?
1CI: statistic + margin of error.
What does the margin of error include?
The standard error.
What is Bootstrapping?
A method to estimate the standard error of a statistic without knowledge of the population.
What does the bootstrapping process involve?
Sampling with replacement from the original sample.