Search results
Results from the WOW.Com Content Network
Statistical inference makes propositions about a population, using data drawn from the population with some form of sampling.Given a hypothesis about a population, for which we wish to draw inferences, statistical inference consists of (first) selecting a statistical model of the process that generates the data and (second) deducing propositions from the model.
Whereas descriptive statistics describe a sample, inferential statistics infer predictions about a larger population that the sample represents. The outcome of statistical inference may be an answer to the question "what should be done next?", where this might be a decision about making further experiments or surveys, or about drawing a ...
In statistics education, informal inferential reasoning (also called informal inference) refers to the process of making a generalization based on data (samples) about a wider universe (population/process) while taking into account uncertainty without using the formal statistical procedure or methods (e.g. P-values, t-test, hypothesis testing, significance test).
The handful are the sample. The null hypothesis is that the sample originated from the population. The criterion for rejecting the null-hypothesis is the "obvious" difference in appearance (an informal difference in the mean). The interesting result is that consideration of a real population and a real sample produced an imaginary bag.
In statistics, the question of checking whether a coin is fair is one whose importance lies, firstly, in providing a simple problem on which to illustrate basic ideas of statistical inference and, secondly, in providing a simple problem that can be used to compare various competing methods of statistical inference, including decision theory.
Inferences are steps in logical reasoning, moving from premises to logical consequences; etymologically, the word infer means to "carry forward". Inference is theoretically traditionally divided into deduction and induction, a distinction that in Europe dates at least to Aristotle (300s BCE).
Classical inferential statistics emerged primarily during the second quarter of the 20th century, [6] largely in response to the controversial principle of indifference used in Bayesian probability at that time. The resurgence of Bayesian inference was a reaction to the limitations of frequentist probability, leading to further developments and ...
Research dating back to Émile Durkheim suggests that predominantly Protestant localities have higher suicide rates than predominantly Catholic localities. [3] According to Freedman, [4] the idea that Durkheim's findings link, at an individual level, a person's religion to their suicide risk is an example of the ecological fallacy.