Interpreting Basic Statistics: A Workbook Based on Excerpts from Journal Articles

Interpreting Basic Statistics gives students valuable practice in interpreting statistical reporting as it actually appears in peer-reviewed journals.

New to the eighth edition:

• A broader array of basic statistical concepts is covered, especially to better reflect the New Statistics.
• Journal excerpts have been updated to reflect current styles in statistical reporting.
• A stronger emphasis on data visualizations has been added.

• The statistical exercises have been re-organized into units to facilitate ease of use and understanding.

About this book

Each of the 64 exercises gives a brief excerpt of statistical reporting from a published research article, and begins with guidelines for interpreting the statistics in the excerpt.

The questions on the excerpts promote learning by requiring students to

• interpret information in tables and figures,
• perform simple calculations to further their interpretations,
• critique data-reporting techniques, and
• evaluate procedures used to collect data.

Each exercise covers a limited number of statistics, making it easy to coordinate the exercises with lectures and a main textbook.

The questions in each exercise are divided into two parts: (1) Factual Questions and (2) Questions for Discussion. The factual questions require careful reading for details, while the discussion questions show that interpreting statistics is more than a mathematical exercise. These questions require students to apply good judgment as well as statistical reasoning in arriving at appropriate interpretations.