The Three MS: Analysis Data
The Three MS: Analysis Data
The Three Ms
Mean
Example:
The median is 9.
Mode
Significant Difference
Significance
The measure of whether the results
of research were due to chance.
The more statistical significance
assigned to an observation, the
less likely the observation occurred
by chance.
p-value
The way in which significance is
reported statistically (i.e. p<.01
means that there is a less than 1%
chance that the results of a study
are due to random chance). Note
that generally p-values need to be
fairly low (.01 and .05 are common)
in order for a study to make any
strong claims based on the results.
Example:
Correlation
Correlation
The degree to which two factors
appear to be related. Correlation
should not be confused with
causation. Just because two factors
are reported as being correlated,
you cannot say that one factor
causes the other. For example, you
might find a correlation between
going to the library at least 40
times per semester and getting
high scores on tests. However, you
cannot say from these findings
what about going to the library, or
what about people who go to
libraries often, is responsible for
higher test scores.
r-value
The way in which correlation is
reported statistically (a number
between -1 and +1). Generally, rvalues should be >+/-.3 in order to
report a significant correlation.
An r-value of -1 indicates a
extreme negative correlation
An r-value of +1 indicates an
extreme positive correlation
between two variables - as
one variable's values tend to
increase, the other variable's
values also tend to increase.
BASIC STATISTICS
1.)
Basic Concepts:
Statistics
: is a science that analyzes
info
rmation variables (for
instance,
population age, height of a
basketball team, the
temperatures of summer
months, etc.) and attempts to
extract conclusions based on
the behavior of
these variables. Statistics is
one of the
sciences that allow us to
know, or at
least to understand, the
reality in which we live.
Through statistics, we can
obtain very valuable
information that will help us to
make decisions
numerically (temperature,
salary, numbers
of goals in a soccer match,
etc.).
Quantitative variables may be
defined, according to the type
of values that
represent as:
Discrete
: Those values that represent
isolated values (natural
numbers) and that cannot
take any intermediate value
between
two established consecutive
values.
For instance; number of goals,
number of children, number of
bought records, number of
heartbeats...
Continuous
: Those values that represent
infinite values (real
numbers) in a given interval,
so that they can represent
any
intermediate value, in theory
at least, in their range of
variation.
For instance; size, weight,
blood pressure, temperature..
2
Continuous
: Those values that represent
infinite values (real
numbers) in a given interval,
so that they can represent
any
Absolute frequency:
the absolute frequency of a
statistical
variable is the number of
times th
at value of the variable
appears
in the sample.
Relative frequency:
Absolute frequency is a
measure influenced
by the size of the simple.
Increasing the sample size
also
increases the absolute
frequency. This correlation
makes it a
measure not useful to
compare. Th
at is why it is necessary to
introduce the concept of
relative frequency
, or the quotient
obtained dividing the absolute
frequency over the sample
size.