Statistics I & II Flashcards
Parameter
describes the whole population
Is a parameter fixed or does it vary? Why?
fixed because you know data about everyone in the population
Statistic
describes a sample of the population
Is a statistic fixed or does it vary? Why?
varies because you can take different samples from the same population
Is a parameter or a statistic more reliable?
parameter
What is the issue with using a parameter instead of a statistic?
if the population you are testing is large, the testing requires more time and resources
What are descriptive statistics used to describe?
central tendency, variability, & shape of data
Central tendency
where the middle of the data lies
What is the “king” measurement for central tendency - mean, median or mode? Why?
mean because you can do the most stats w/it
What is the mean affected by?
Outliers
If your data has outliers, which measurement is used instead of mean?
Median
Median
the middle most number in a set of scores
Mode
the most frequently occurring score(s) in a distribution
Mean (average)
the sum of the scores divided by the number of scores
Variability
the spread or dispersion of a set of research data or distribution
If you have test scores that are all over the place (10’s, 35’s, and 100’s), yet most scored in the 80’s, would you have a lower or higher variability?
higher variability
Range
the difference between the highest and lowest scores in a distribution
Percentiles
describes a score’s position within a distribution compared to others on a scale of 0-100%
If you are in the 75th percentile, you scored ___________ than ________ of others.
75%
higher
Quartiles
divide distributions into four equal parts
Q1 = 25th percentile
Q2 = 50th percentile
Q3 = 75th percentile
Q4 = 100th percentile
Interquartile range
The difference between the upper and lower quartiles.
Standard deviation
represents the spread/dispersion/variability of scores relative to the mean
Coefficient of variation compares what?
compares 2 SD’s
What is the “king” measurement for variability?
standard deviation