Statistics -- Inferential Statistics: Confidence Intervals

1. Confidence interval is much more accurate representation of reality.
2. The level of confidence. It is denoted by one minus Alpha and is called the confidence level of the interval. Alpha is a value between 0 and 1.
3. The formula for all confidence intervals is from the point estimate minus the reliability factor times the standard error to the point estimate plus the reliability factor times the standard error. [Point Estimate - Reliability Factorstandard error, Point Estimate + ReliabilityStandard Error] The point estiamte is the X bar.
4. How is the a confidence interval related to a point estimate? – The point estimate is the midpoint of the interval.
5. A confidence interval is the range within which you expect the population parameter to be and its estimation is based on the data we have in our sample. There can be two main situations when we calculate the confidence intervals for a population when the population barrier is known and when it is unknown depending on which situation we are in we would use a different calculation method.
6. If we know that a variable is normally distributed we are basically making the statement that the majority of observations will be around the mean and the rest far away from it.
7. When our confidence is lower the confidence interval itself is smaller. For a 99% confidence interval we would have a higher confidence but a much larger confidence interval.
8. Student’s T Distribution allows inference through small samples and with an unknown population variance.
9. Z-statistic is related to the standard normal distribution. t-statistic is related to the Student’s distribution.
10. In essence the bigger the sample the closer we get to the actual numbers a common rule of thumb is that for a sample containing more than 50 observations we use the Z table instead of the t table.
11. The Student’s T distribution approximates the Normal distribution but has fatter tails. This means the probability of values being far away from the mean is bigger. For big enough samples, the Student’s T distribution coincides with the Normal distribution.
12. Population variance is unknown, the sample size is small => Student’s T distribution.
13. When population variance is unknown, sample standard deviation goes with the t statistic. When population variance is known, population standard deviation goes with the Z statistic.
14. A higher level of competence increases the statistic a higher statistic means a high margin of error.
15. Bigger margin of error => wider confidence interval.
16. Smaller margin of error => narrower confidence interval
17. A lower standard deviation means that the data set is more concentrated around the mean.
18. Higher sample sizes will decrease the margin of error. This is also quite intuitive.
19. The more observations there are in the sample, the higher the chances of getting a good idea about the true mean of the entire population.
20. A higher statistics increases the margin of error. A higher standard deviation inceases the margin of error. A higher sample size decreases the margin of error.
21. Confidence intervals for dependent samples. And statistical methods like regressions.
22. Dependent samples: this if often used when developing medicine. In biology, normality is so often observed that we assume that such variables are normally distributed.