Sampling distributions and confidence intervals:

By simulation and by bootstrap.

Module 3, Week 6, 2021-10

Bioestadística BIOL 2205, Ciencias Biológicas, Universidad de los Andes
Professor Andrew J. Crawford

Names of the members of usual normal Lab group: 4

1. Maria Fernanda Herreño
2. Viviana Guayara
3. Nicol Vergara

ANSWER SHEET

Part 1

Paste below a small copy of your original sample from the Gamma(1, 10) distribution:

Paste below a small copy of one of your sampling distributions of the possible means from a
draw of size n (labeled, so we know which of the two this figure represents).

Results of Shapiro-Wilk tests of normality applied to sampling distributions estimated from

5,000 replicate samples of size n:

Test statistic, W P-value

Sample size n = 500
Sample size n = 20

Does the SE of the mean of one sample provide a ‘good’ estimate of the SD of the sampling
distribution of means, as our textbook claims?

se of sample sd of sampling distribution

Sample size n = 500
Sample size n = 20

Which gave us the larger sampling error (uncertainty in our estimated mean), n = 500 or n = 20?
Advanced question:
How might you next evaluate whether our estimate of the sd the sampling distribution show
signs of bias or not?

Part 2A

For the variable Tacc (or ‘jumps’) based on n = 9 green frogs, report the following:

Mean:

SD:

SE:

90% Confidence Interval based on the t distribution:

Part 2B

Paste a histogram for the sampling distribution based on 1,000 bootstrap samples.

Paste a histogram for the sampling distribution based on 10,000 bootstrap samples.

Which one looks more ‘normal’ and why? Which one will we use to calculate the bootstrap
confidence interval?

Part 3

For your bootstrap sampling distribution, report the following:

Mean:

SD:

Compare the above values with your single-sample estimates of the:

Mean:

SE:

90% bootstrap confidence interval via the formula (CI90th):

90% bootstrap confidence interval via 5th & 95th quantiles (CI90quantiles):

90% confidence interval based on t distribution (from Part 2A, above):

Question:
Which of the above three methods for obtaining a Confidence Interval seems the most
conservative and why?

Question:
Which of the above three methods for obtaining a Confidence Interval do you prefer and why?

True / False question:

The most important assumption in this exercise is that the original data were sampled randomly
with respect to (and therefore representative of) the reference population?

Answer T or F, and provide a one sentence justification.

Question:
Write a concise and correct definition of the (1 – a)% Confidence Interval: