STAT1008 Chapter Notes - Chapter 3: Statistical Parameter, Point Estimation, Statistic
Document Summary
Statistical inference is the process of drawing conclusions about the entire population based on information in a sample. A statistic is a number that is computed from data in a simple ( mean, cooperation, standard deviation) A parameter is a number that describes some aspect of a population ( population mean, population standard deviation) We use the statistic from a sample as a point estimate from population parameter. Point estimates will not match population parameter exactly, but they are our best guess, given the data. Sample statistics vary from sample to sample. (they will not match the parameter exactly) Key answer: it depends on how much the statistic varies from sample to sample. A sampling distribution is the distribution of sample statistics computed for different samples of the same size from the same population. A sampling distribution shows us how the sample statistic varies from sample to sample. We care about the variability of the sampling distribution.
