WESTERN UNIVERSITY

LONDON CANADA
Department of Psychology
2023-2024

Psychology 2811
Statistics for Psychology I

READING LIST
Many (but not all) of the readings for this course are available in the following online text:
Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study * (http://onlinestatbook.com/2/).
Project Leader: David M. Lane, Rice University.
* I like this book because it has interactive demos included within the chapters that illustrate many
of the basic concepts. It also includes examples that I think are reasonably easy to follow. However,
the chapters are quite long and sometimes discuss concepts/ideas that are beyond the scope of our
class. To address this issue, I’ve made suggestions for which sections to read (these will be listed in
red font [e.g., Sections: 1, 2, and 3]).
Other readings come from other online stat books and sometimes from blogs about statistics.
These are resources that I have read and that I think are reasonably intuitive explanations of
the main concepts.

Before you embark on an exhaustive read of these resources, please read the FAQs at the end
of this document so that you understand how I will use these readings in the context of the
course.

Lecture Lecture Topic Readings

1 Descriptive statistics • Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 3: Summarizing Distributions
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/summarizing_distributions/summarizing_dis
tributions.html

Sections: 2, 3, 4, 12, 13, 14, and 15

• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 2: Graphing Distributions
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/graphing_distributions/graphing_distributio
ns.html

Sections: A, B2, B4, B5, B6, and B7

• Narkhede, S. (2018). Understanding Descriptive Statistics.
Toward Data Science (5 June 2018; Retrieved: 3 May 2023)
https://towardsdatascience.com/understanding-descriptive-statistics-
c9c2b0641291

1
2 Sampling distributions • Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 1: Introduction
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/introduction/distributions.html

Section: 11
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 7: Normal Distribution
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/normal_distribution/normal_distribution.ht
ml

Sections: 2 through 6
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 9: Sampling Distributions
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/sampling_distributions/sampling_distributio
ns.html

Sections: 2 through 8
3 Probability • Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 5: Probability
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/probability/probability.html

Sections: 2 through 9
4 Estimation, effect size • Lakens, D. (2022). Improving Your Statistical Inferences.
and precision Chapter 6: Effect sizes
https://lakens.github.io/statistical_inferences/06-effectsize.html

Sections: 6.1 through 6.5

• Lakens, D. (2022). Improving Your Statistical Inferences.
Chapter 6: Confidence Intervals
https://lakens.github.io/statistical_inferences/06-effectsize.html

Sections: 7.1 through 7.6

5 Null hypothesis • Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
significance testing Chapter 11: Logic of Hypothesis Testing
(NHST) https://onlinestatbook.com/2/logic_of_hypothesis_testing/logic_hypothes
is.html

Sections: 2 through 10
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 18: Distribution Free Tests
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/distribution_free_tests/contents.html

Sections: 2 and 3

2
Lecture Lecture Topic
6 Tests of association:
Categorical data
Tests of association:
Continuous data *
* Note: This topic may be
delivered online to allow in-
lecture exam Q&A
7 Single sample tests
8 Two-sample tests
Readings
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 17: Chi-Square
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/chi_square/Chi_Square.html
Sections: 2, 5, and 6
• Frost, J. Statistics by Jim. Retrieved 3 May 2023
https://statisticsbyjim.com/hypothesis-testing/chi-square-
test-independence-example/
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 4: Describing Bivariate Data
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/describing_bivariate_data/bivariate.html
Sections: 2, 3, 4, and 5
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 14: Regression
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/regression/regression.html
Sections: 2, 3, 4, and 6
• Frost, J. Statistics by Jim. Retrieved 3 May 2023
https://statisticsbyjim.com/hypothesis-testing/z-test/
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 12: Tests of Means
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/tests_of_means/testing_means.html
Sections: 2 and 3
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 12: Tests of Means
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/tests_of_means/testing_means.html
Sections: 4 and 5
• Childs, D. Stats for Bio. Chapter 13: Two-Sample t-test
https://dzchilds.github.io/stats-for-bio/two-sample-t-test.html
Sections: 13.1 through 13.2.3
3
 Lecture Lecture Topic Readings
9 One-way ANOVA • Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 15: Analysis of Variance
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/analysis_of_variance/ANOVA.html

Sections: 2, 3, 4, and 5
• Childs, D. Stats for Bio. Chapter 17: Introduction to one-way
ANOVA
https://dzchilds.github.io/stats-for-bio/introduction-to-one-way-
anova.html

Sections: 17.1 through 17.5.3

10 Correlated samples • Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
tests Chapter 12: Tests of Means
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/tests_of_means/testing_means.html

Sections: 8 and 9
• Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study
Chapter 15: Analysis of Variance
https://onlinestatbook.com/2/analysis_of_variance/ANOVA.html

Sections: 9 and 10

Frequently Asked Questions:

• Are the readings required? No! The purpose of including the readings is to give you
some resources to supplement/improve your understanding of the course material if you
find something confusing.
• Will there be test questions drawn from the readings? No! the test questions will be
drawn exclusively from the lectures, labs, and homework problems in the course. You
should not approach the readings as things that you need to memorize or study to do
well on the exams.
• Should I do the practice problems? Maybe. In some of the online stat books, there are
practice problems included at the end of the chapters. If there is a concept you find
confusing, you should consider the practice problems, which are designed to give you
more familiarity with the concepts covered in the chapter. Of course, not all the
problems will be applicable to what we are learning so you will need to choose which
problems are relevant to the class. But if you are struggling with a concept, the extra
practice might be beneficial in helping you to understand an idea.
• What if I found a really great resource online that made a concept ‘click’ for me? Send
it to the instructor with a short description of what was helpful about it! You might just
see it get posted to the reading list for others in the class to use. ☺