Health Sciences 2801A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Medical Thermometer, Large Deviations Theory, Dependent And Independent Variables
Document Summary
Observed score numerical value yielded by measurement instrument: ex. Reading of 38 degrees c obtained through clinical thermometer: however it has little practical meaning without knowing its place, mean is useful benchmark for judging location of score among other among other scores scores, ex. Body temp of 38 degrees is sign of fever because it is higher than mean body temp of 37 degrees. Centred score calculated by subtracting mean from observed score: positive centred score = above mean, negative centred score = below mean. Person"s notion of what is average/usual provides important benchmark for interpreting events. Variable - set of scores that differ in value to some extent. Dependent variable (y) variable one wants to predict. Independent variable (x) the variable one uses to predict it. Sum of squares and products (ssp) table is good way of summarizing info about variables. Ssp table shown below contains sum of squares, sum of products, and means for variables y and x.