STATS 250 Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Data Dredging, Multiple Comparisons Problem, Random Assignment

• School: U of M
• Department: Statistics
• Course: STATS 250
• Professor: Brenda Gunderson

Document Summary

Statistics is a collection of procedures and principles for gathering data and analyzing information in order to help people make decisions when faced with uncertainty. Course goal: learn various tools for using data to gain understanding and make sound decisions about the world around us. Chapter 1 starts out with eight statistical stories with morals, presented as seven case studies. In each, data are used to make a decision, a judgment, about a situation. These case studies follow a wide range of ideas and methods and introduce a lot of statistical language. Take a few minutes to read them and add your own summary regarding the moral to each story below. Simple summaries of data can tell an interesting story and are easier to digest than long lists. When discussing the change in the rate or risk of occurrence of something, make sure you also include the base rate or baseline risk.