The Right Questions about Statistics
Workshops for undergratuate students, postgraduate students and staff encountering statistics relating to research
Fridays 11am, Flentje Lecture Theatre, Weeks 1-8 Semester 2 2012
NO NEED TO BOOK
There are a lot of people who want the right answers about statistics. Yet in order to understand statistics, or even just to use it, what you need is to ask the right questions. These workshops aim to teach you the sorts of questions you need to ask in order to decide what statistical procedures are appropriate for your research; and the sorts of questions to ask in order to understand a statistical procedure better. And yes, there will be some answers about statistics too.
To download the flyer in pdf form, please follow this link: The Right Questions about Statistics Flyer
Below is a list of the seminar titles. Click on the title to be taken down the page to the resources for that seminar. (Those with no active link have not had resources uploaded yet.)
- Week 2: 3 Aug: What information do I need to help me choose the right stats?
- Week 3: 10 Aug: What does a p-value mean? & What does a confidence interval mean?
- Week 4: 17 Aug: What is regression all about?
- Week 5: 24 Aug: How do I choose the right test for my research?
- Week 6: 31 Aug: How do I understand the t-test, ANOVA, chi-squared test ... ?
- Week 7: 7 Sep: How do I understand regression coefficients, logistic regression ... ?
- Week 8: 14 Sep: How do you calculate sample sizes?
To download a (large) PDF fle containing all the handouts and notes from all the seminars, follow this link: The Right Questions about Statistics full set handouts
Week 2: 3 Aug: What information do I need to help me choose the right stats?
In this workshop, I talked about how the purpose of statistics is for answering quesitons using data. Therefore in order to choose the right stats, you need to know more about the question you are trying to answer and the data you are using to answer it. I listed all the questions you need to ask yourself about both the question and the data, with a little practice at answering a couple of them. More detail on answering more of these questions will come in later seminars.
To view or download the video recording, follow the link below. Note that there are sections with no sound when we were doing activities in the classroom. Also note that this video only work for students and staff of the Uni of Adelaide.
To download the handouts for Seminar 1, follow the links below. The first is a paper version of what was on the screeen during the seminar. The second two are the activities we did, plus answers.
- Handout of lecture slide content
- Question Types activity plus answers
- Variable Types activity plus answers
Week 3: 10 Aug: What does a p-value mean? & What does a confidence interval mean?
In this workshop, I talked about how hypothesis tests (p-values) and confidence intervals work, including what is meant by a test statistic and a distribution. The idea is that if you know more about your statistics there will be greater power over them.
To view or download the video recording, follow the link below. Note that this video only work for students and staff of the Uni of Adelaide.
To download the handouts and powerpoint slides for Seminar 2, follow the links below.
- Handout of main lecture slide content
- Hypothesis test explanation powerpoint show
- Confidence Intervals explanation powerpoint show
Week 4: 17 Aug: What is regression all about?
In this workshop, I talked about how regression is a method for finding a formula that predicts an outcome based on various information. I showed what a typical computer output looks like, and where to find the information for various hypothesis tests and confidence intervals. Again, the idea is that if you know more about your statistics there will be greater power over them.
To view or download the video recording, follow the link below. Note that this video only works for students and staff of the Uni of Adelaide.
To download the handouts and powerpoint slides for Seminar 3, follow the links below.
Week 5: 24 Aug: How do I choose the right test for my research?
In this workshop, I reviewed the information you need to consider in order to choose what statistics goes with your research question. Then we practiced making this choice for various research questions.
To view or download the video recording, follow the link below. Note that this video only works for students and staff of the Uni of Adelaide. Please note there is a period of silence from the 28-minute mark to the 44-minute mark where we were doing the choosing activity in class.
To download the handouts for Seminar 4, follow the links below.
Week 6: 31 Aug: How do I understand the t-test, ANOVA, chi-squared test ... ?
In this seminar, I gave details on how some of the most common hypothesis tests work, including the unpaired t-test, the chi-squared test for independence, Fisher's exact test, one-way ANOVA with post-hoc t-tests, and some non-parametric tests.
To view or download the video recording, follow the link below. Note that this video only works for students and staff of the Uni of Adelaide.
To download the handouts for Seminar 5, follow the links below.
Week 7: 7 Sep: How do I understand regression coefficients, logistic regression ... ?
In this seminar, I gave details on various different types of regression. I talked about simple linear regression, multiple linear regression, logistic regression, general linear regression, generalised linear regression and random effects regression. For linear regression I discussed the assumptions and the graphs used to test them, as well as what the p-values refer to in the computer output.
To view or download the video recording, follow the link below. Note that this video only works for students and staff of the Uni of Adelaide.
To download the handouts for Seminar 6, follow the links below.
Week 8: 14 Sep: How do I calculate sample size?
In this seminar, I gave details of the information you need to calculate a sample size for a study. These calculations are based on the significance level, the power, the size of the difference you are looking for, an estimate of variability, and the actual statistical procedure you will be using. I showed an internet-based calculator, and some simple formulas for specific situations.
To view or download the video recording, follow the link below. Note that this video only works for students and staff of the Uni of Adelaide.
To download the handouts for Seminar 7, follow the links below.
During the seminar, I mentioned a page with online sample-size calculators, which you can get to from the following link:
