Presenting Data

Descriptive Statistics
Nominal Level

 No order, just a name

 Can report
– Mode
– Bar Graph
– Pie Chart
Ordinal Level

 Rank order only

 Can Report
– Mode
– Median
– Percentiles
– Histograms and Pie Charts
Interval/Ratio Level

 Equidistant

 Can Report
– Mode, Median, Mean
– Standard Deviation
– Percentiles
– Frequency curves, Histograms
Univariate Data

 Good to start at the univariate level

 Univariate: one variable at a time
– Investigate the responses
– Assess usability for the rest of the analysis
Frequency Table

 Shows how often each response was

given by the respondents

 Most useful with nominal or ordinal

– Interval/ratio has too many categories

 In Minitab, Select: Stat>Tables>Tally

Charts and Graphs
 Use a bar graph or pie chart if the variable
has a limited number of discrete values
– Nominal or ordinal measures

 Histograms and frequency curves are best for

interval/ratio measures

 In Minitab, Select: Graph > (and then type)

Normal Curve
 The normal curve is critical to assessing
normality which is an underlying assumption
in inferential statistical procedures
– And in reporting of results

 Kurtosis: related to the bell-shape

 Skewness: symmetry of the curve
– If more scores are bunched together on the left
side, positive skew (right)
– If most scores are bunched together on the right
side, negative skew
Normal Curve

 To get a statistical summary, including

an imposed normal curve in Minitab:

 Select: Stat > Basic Statistics > Display

Descriptive Statistics > Graph >
Graphical Summary
Measures of Central Tendency
 Mode: most frequently selected
– Bimodal = two modes
– If more than two modes, either multiple
modes or no mode

 Median: halfway point

– Not always an actual response

 Mean: arithmetic mean

Percentiles
 The median is the 50 percentile

 A percentile tells you the percentage of

responses that fall above and below a
particular point

 Interquartile range = 75th percentile –

25th percentile
– Not affected by outliers as the range is
Z-scores
 Standard deviations provide an estimate
of variability
 If scores follow a ‘normal curve’, you
can comparing any two scores by
standardizing them
– Translate scores into z-scores
– (Value – mean) / standard deviation
Statistical Hypotheses

 Statistical Hypotheses are statements

about population parameters.

 Hypotheses are not necessarily true.

In statistics, we test one hypothesis against
another…
 The hypothesis that we want to prove is
called the alternative hypothesis, Ha.
 Another hypothesis is formed which
contradicts Ha.
– This hypothesis is called the null
hypothesis, Ho. Ho contains an
equality statement.
Errors
Truth
Ho is true Ho is false
Decision Reject Ho Type I Error OK
Fail to OK Type II
Reject Ho Error
P-value
 The choice of  is subjective.
 
 The smaller  is, the smaller the
critical region. Thus, the harder it is to
Reject Ho.
 
 The p-value of a hypothesis test is the
smallest value of  such that Ho would
have been rejected.
Interval Estimates
 Statisticians prefer interval estimates.

X  Something
 Something depends on amount of
variability in data and how certain we want
to be that we are correct.
 

 The degree of certainty that we are correct

is known as the level of confidence.
– Common levels are 90%, 95%, and 99%.
Statistical Significance

 Statistically significant: if the probability

of obtaining a statistic by chance is less
than the set alpha level (usually 5%)
P-value
 The probability, computed assuming that Ho is
true, that the test statistic would take a value
as extreme or more extreme than that actually
observed is called the p-value of the test.
 The smaller the p-value, the stronger the
evidence against Ho provided by the data.
 If the p-value is as small or smaller than alpha,
we say that the data are statistically significant
at level alpha.
Power
 The probability that a fixed level alpha
significance test will reject Ho when a
particular alternative value of the
parameter is true is called the power of the
test to detect that alternative.

 One way to increase power is to increase

sample size.
Use and Abuse
 P-values are more informative than the results of a
fixed level alpha test.
 Beware of placing too much weight on traditional
values of alpha.
 Very small effects can be highly significant,
especially when a test is based on a large sample.
 Lack of significance does not imply that Ho is true,
especially when the test has low power.
 Significance tests are not always valid.