STAT 463 Lecture Notes - Lecture 2: Likelihood Function, Opata Language, Statistical Parameter
Document Summary
All of the last semester, and last week, we were concerned with concepts of probability and random variables. We used them to build models of nondeterministic (i. e. , random) phenomena. We focused on distributions of random variables, including function of random variables such as the sample mean. These distributions were sometimes used to determine the likelihood of a particular event or the expected value/variance of the random variable. In each of these instances, we assumed that we knew the correct probability model. Most often, however, we are interested in a numeric characteristic of a random phenomenon that cannot be computed/observed directly. Instead, we observe one or more random variables whose distributions depend on the parameter of interest. Then, we use statistical inference methods to analyze the observed values to gain knowledge about the unknown characteristic and/or make decisions based on the unknown characteristic. The rest of the semester we will be focusing on developing these statistical inference methods.
