Chapter 1

INTRO TO STATISTICS
• The term statistics refers to a set of mathematical procedures for organizing,
summarizing, and interpreting information.

• Statistics serve to general purposes:

1. Statistics are used to organize and summarize the information so that the
researcher can see what happened in the research study and can
communicate the results to others.
2. Statistics help the researcher to answer the general questions that initiated
the research by determining exactly what conclusions are justified based on
the results that were obtained.

• Scientific research typically begins with a general question about a specific

group (or groups) of individuals.
• What are some questions you are interested in?

• A population is the set of all the individuals of interest in a particular study.

• For example:
○ All women, all preschool children, all men over 6’ in height
• The population being studied should always be specified by the researcher
• Populations can be composed of rats, corporations, parts produced in a factory,
etc

• A sample is a set of individuals selected from a population, usually intended to

represent the population in a research study
• When a researcher finishes examining a sample, the goal is to generalize the
results back to the entire population

• Research starts with a general question about a population

• To answer the question, a researcher studies a sample and then generalizes the
results from the sample to the population

• A parameter is a value, usually a numerical value, that describes a population.

A parameter may be obtained from a single measurement, or it may be derived
from a set of measurements from the population.

• A statistic is a value, usually a numerical value, that describes a sample. A

statistic may be obtained from a single measurement, or it may be derived from
a set of measurements from the sample.

• Data (plural) are measurements or observations. A data set is a collection of

measurements or observations. A datum (singular) is a single measurement or
observation and is commonly called a score or raw score.

• Descriptive statistics are statistical procedures used to summarize, organize,

and simplify data.

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• Inferential statistics consist of techniques that allow us to study samples and
then make generalizations about the populations from which they are selected.

• Usually not possible to measure everyone in the population because populations

are large → Select a sample to represent the population → Use sample statistics
as the basis for drawing conclusions about the population parameters

• Sampling error is the discrepancy, or amount of error, that exists between a

sample statistic and the corresponding population parameter.

• Samples are representative but cannot provide a perfectly accurate picture of

the whole population

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THE PURPOSE OF INFERENTIAL STATISTICS

• Is the observed difference between two or more samples a convincing difference

or could it occur simply by chance?

• A variable is a characteristic or condition that changes or has different values

for different individuals.
• For example:
○ Height, weight, gender, temperature, time of day, size of room

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• A constant is a characteristic or condition that does not vary but is the same for
every individual.

• Can control variables by holding them constant, e.g., Only 10-year old children
are tested in the same room at 2:00 PM → Participant’s age, the room, and the
time of day are all constant

• Some research is conducted simply to describe individual variables as they exist

naturally → Most research examines the relationship between two or more
variables

MEASURING TWO (OR MORE) VARIABLES FOR EACH INDIVIDUAL: THE

CORRELATIONAL METHOD

• Relationship between wake-up time and academic performance

• As wake-up time increases, academic performance decreases!
• In the correlational method, two (or more) variables are observed to determine
whether there is a relationship between them.
• Correlational method with non-numerical values:
○ Table 1.1 → Evaluate using Chi-square test

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COMPARING TWO OR MORE SETS OF MEASUREMENTS: EXPERIMENTAL AND

NON-EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

• Examine the relationship between two variables by comparing two or more

groups of scores
• One of the variables is used to define groups

• Variable 1 → Breakfast versus no breakfast

• Variable 2 → Academic performance
• Can compare means or proportions

THE EXPERIMENTAL METHOD

• Goal is to demonstrate a cause-and-effect relationship between two variables

• Specifically, an experiment attempts to show that changing the value of one
variable will cause changes to occur in the second variable

• Two characteristics that differentiate experiments from other types of research

studies:
1. Manipulation → The researcher manipulates one variable by changing its
value from one level to another. A second variable is observed (measured) to
determine whether the manipulation causes changes to occur.
2. Control → The researcher must exercise some control over the research
situation to ensure that other, extraneous variables do not influence the
relationship being examined.

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• Two general categories of variables

1. Participant variables → Age, gender, and intelligence

• Participant variables must not differ from one group to another
• If members of one group have a higher IQ and higher memory scores,
experiment would be confounded → Don’t know if difference in
performance is due to temperature or IQ
1. Environmental variables → Characteristics of the environment such as
lighting, time of day, and weather conditions
• Individuals from both groups must be tested in same environment…
except for temperature difference
• If one group is tested in the morning and the other is tested in the
afternoon and there are differences in memory scores, the experiment
would be confounded → Don’t know if difference is due to temperature
or time of testing

• A research study is confounded whenever there is more than one explanation for
the results

• Three basic techniques to control other variables:

1. Random assignment → Each participant has an equal chance of being

assigned to each of the treatment conditions → Goal is to distribute
participant characteristics and environmental variables evenly between /
across groups
2. Matching → Ensure equivalent groups and equivalent environments
3. Hold variables constant, e.g., include only 10-year olds

• In the experimental method, one variable is manipulated while another variable

is observed and measured. To establish a cause-and-effect relationship between
the two variables, an experiment attempts to control all other variables to
prevent them from influencing the results.

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• The independent variable is the variable that is manipulated by the
researcher. In behavioural research, the independent usually consists of the two
(or more) treatment conditions to which subjects are exposed. The independent
variable consists of the antecedent conditions that were manipulated prior to
observing the dependent variable.

• The dependent variable is the one that is observed in order to assess the
effect of the treatment.

• Individuals in a control condition do not receive the experimental treatment.

Instead, they either receive no treatment or they receive a neutral, placebo
treatment. The purpose of a control condition is to provide a baseline for
comparison with the experimental condition.
• For example:
○ Subjects are randomly assigned to two groups. One group receives
training in a memory enhancement procedure (the independent variable).
The other group (the control group) does not. Both groups are asked to
memorize a list of nonsense words. They are then asked to recall as
many words as possible (the dependent variable).

• Individuals in the experimental condition receive the experimental

treatment.

NON-EXPERIMENTAL AND QUASI-EXPERIMENTAL METHODS

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a. No manipulation and no control over group assignment to create

individual groups, this study is not a true experiment
b. Because the researcher cannot control the passage of time or other
variables related to time, the study is not a true experiment.

• Many research studies involve comparing two groups that were not created by
manipulating the independent variable. Instead, the groups are usually
determined by a participant variable (such as male versus female) or a time
variable (such as before versus after treatment). In these non-experimental
studies, the variable that determines the groups is called a quasi-
independent variable.

VARIABLES AND MEASUREMENT

• Psychologists (not Applied Behavioural Scientists) use hypothetical constructs to

describe and interpret behaviour.

• Applied Behavioural Scientists do not interpret behaviour.

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• “Intelligence”, “self-esteem” → Cannot be directly observed → “Constructs”

• Observe and measure behaviours that are thought to be representative of the

behaviour → External behaviours are used to create an operational definition
of the construct

• Constructs are internal attributes or characteristics that cannot be directly

observed but are useful for describing and explaining behaviour.

• An operational definition identifies a measurement procedure (a set of

operations) for measuring an external behaviour and uses the resulting
measurements as a definition and a measurement of a hypothetical construct.
Note that an operational definition has two components: First, it describes a set
of operations for measuring a construct. Second, it defines the construct in
terms of the resulting measurements.

NOTE: THIS IS NOT HOW WE USE THIS TERM IN APPLIED BEHAVIOUR

ANALYSIS!!!!!

DISCRETE AND CONTINUOUS VARIABLES

• A discrete variable consists of separate, indivisible categories. No values can

exist between two neighbouring categories.
• For example:
○ Male or female, the number of people in the class at 10:35 AM

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• For a continuous variable, there are an infinite number of possible values that
fall between any two observed values. A continuous variable is divisible into an
infinite number of fractional parts.
• For example:
○ Time, height, weight

• Two important factors about continuous variables:

a. When measuring a continuous variable, it should be very rare to obtain
identical measurements for two different individuals
b. When measuring a continuous variable, each measurement category is
actually an interval that must be defined by boundaries.

• Real limits are the boundaries of intervals for scores that are represented on a
continuous number line. The real limit separating two adjacent scores is located
exactly halfway between the scores. Each score has two real limits. The upper
real limit is at the top of the interval, and the lower real limit is at the bottom.
• For example:
○ Measuring time to the nearest second.
○ For a score of 31 seconds, the lower real limit is 30.5 seconds and the
upper real limit is 31.5 seconds.
○ Real limits are always halfway between adjacent categories.

SCALES OF MEASUREMENT
• Measurement involves either categorizing events (qualitative measurements) or
using numbers to characterize the size of the event (quantitative
measurements).

• Several types of scales are associated with measurements

Distinctions among the scales are important because they underscore the
limitations of certain types of measurements and because certain
statistical procedures are appropriate for data collected on some scales
but not on others → THE KEY TO UNDERSTANDING STATISTICS,
FOLKS!!!!!!!

• A nominal scale consists of a set of categories that have different names.

Measurements on a nominal scale label and categorize observations, but do not
make any quantitative distinctions between observations.

• Categories on a nominal scale are not quantitative values but they are
occasionally represented by numbers.
• For example:
○ Academic major, office number, gender

• An ordinal scale consists of a set of categories that are organized in an

ordered sequence. Measurements on an ordinal scale rank observations in
terms of size or magnitude.

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• You can determine if two individuals are different and the direction of the
difference but you cannot determine the magnitude of the difference
• For example:
○ Fred finished first, Alex was second, and Drew was third.

• An interval scale consists of ordered categories that are all intervals of exactly
the same size. With an interval scale, equal differences between numbers on
the scale reflect equal differences in magnitude. However, ratios of magnitudes
are not meaningful.

• Can determine the size and the direction of the difference between two
measurements
• For example:
○ Fahrenheit and Celsius temperature scales → Interval scales have an
arbitrary zero point

• A ratio scale is an interval scale with the additional feature of an absolute zero
point. With a ratio scale, ratios of numbers do reflect ratios of magnitude.

• Can measure the direction and the size of the difference between two
measurements and we can also describe the difference in terms of a ratio
• For example:
○ Height, weight, reaction time, number of errors on a test

STATISTICAL NOTATION

SUMMATION NOTATION
• The Greek letter sigma, or ∑, stands for summation.

• Order of mathematical operations

1. Any calculation contained within parentheses is done first.
2. Squaring (or raising to other exponents) is done second.
3. Multiplying and/or dividing is done third. A series of multiplication and/or
division operations should be done in order from left to right.
4. Summation using the ∑ notation is done next.
5. Finally, any other addition and/or subtraction is done.
• Examples:
∑X, ∑X2 , (∑X)2, ∑(X-1), ∑(X-1), ∑(X-1)2, ∑XY

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