PS102 Lecture Notes - Lecture 3: Statistical Inference, Descriptive Statistics, Developmental Psychology
Document Summary
How do psychologists make sense of research results? (lecture 2 continued) Uses inferential statistics to make inferences about data sets. Conclude differences between groups are genuine and not due to chance. First, need to look at descriptive statistics. Descriptive statistics= statistics that are used to organize raw data into meaningful descriptions. Measures of central tendency= a numerical value that represents the center of the distribution. Measures of variability= a numerical value that represents how different the scores within a group are from each other. Recall we were comparing grade 12 math scores in people who received a minimum of 10 hours a week of musical training from 3-13 years of age with people who had no musical training. Using the appropriate inferential test, a researcher calculates the statistical significance of their results. When you have a very low probability" that your findings are due to chance. Researchers generally accept a 5% chance that the results are due to chance alone.
