Statistica per le scienze del linguaggio

The information we gather with experiments and surveys is collectively called data .

Statistics is the art and science of designing studies and analyzing the data that those studies produce. Its
ultimate goal is translating data into knowledge and understanding of the world around us. In short, statistics is
the art and science of learning from data.

Statistical methods help us investigate questions in an objective manner. Statistical problem

solving is an investigative process that involves four components: (1) formulate a statistical
question, (2) collect data, (3) analyze data, and (4) interpret results.

Three main components of statistics for answering a statistical question:

_ Design: Planning how to obtain data to answer the questions of interest;
_ Description: Summarizing and analyzing the data that are obtained;
_ Inference: Making decisions and predictions based on the data for answering the statistical
question.

Design refers to planning how to obtain data that will efficiently shed light on the problem of
interest.
Description means exploring and summarizing patterns in the data. Files of raw data are often
huge. It is more informative to use a few numbers or a graph to summarize the data.
Inference means making decisions or predictions based on the data. Usually the decision or
prediction refers to a larger group of people, not merely those in the study.

The verb infer means to arrive at a decision or prediction by reasoning from known evidence.

Statistical description and inference are complementary ways of analyzing data. Statistical
description provides useful summaries and helps you find patterns in the data, while inference
helps you make predictions and decide whether observed patterns are meaningful. You can use
both to investigate questions that are important to society.
Long before we analyze data, we need to give careful thought to posing the questions to be
answered by that analysis. The nature of these questions has an impact on all stages—design,
description, and inference.
Finally, a topic that we have not mentioned yet but that is fundamental for statistical inference
is probability , which is a framework for quantifying how likely various possible outcomes are.

The term variable refers to the characteristic being measured.