Health Sciences 3801A/B Lecture Notes - Lecture 1: Medical Thermometer, Standard Deviation, Standard Score

• School: Western University
• Department: Health Sciences
• Course: Health Sciences 3801A/B
• Professor: Christopher Lee

Document Summary

Two important aspects of variables are: variation and covariation. Measures of variation: sum of squares, variance, standard deviation. Measures of covariation: sum of products, simple correlation. A variable is a set of scores that differ to some extent: o(cid:373)e (cid:448)a(cid:396)ia(cid:271)les a(cid:396)e (cid:862)(cid:373)o(cid:396)e (cid:448)a(cid:396)ia(cid:271)le(cid:863) tha(cid:374) othe(cid:396)s . A constant is a set of scores that are all the same. Observed score a number yielded by a measurement instrument, ex. A reading of 38 c obtained from a clinical thermometer. Centered score calculated by subtracting the mean from an observed score, it is relative to another score: positive when it is above the mean, negative when it is below the mean. It increases as the degree of variation in the score increases/ increases as the score are more variable (has no maximum value) A sum of squares and products (ssp) table is a convenient way of summarizing information about variables. An example with three variables (labelled x1.