Cartoon Guide To Statistics

This is a popular supplemental book on statistics. The concept is a great idea. Using cartoons to illustrate concepts can make them more interesting and easier to remember.

The execution is not quite as good as the concept. There are some good illustrations but the text is not as easy to follow or understand. If you have a copy, look at the cartoons, read Gravetter & Wallnau’s textbook, and then go back and look at the cartoons again. By then all of the concepts and most of the cartoons will make sense.

 

 

Cartoon Guide To Statistics
Gonick & Smith
Collins
Outline
     Chapter 1: What Is Statistics
          See Day 1: Measurement
     Chapter 2: Data Description
          See Day 1: Measurement
          See Day 2: Central Tendency
          See Day 3: Dispersion
     Chapter 3: Probability
           See Day 7: Probability
     Chapter 4: Random Variables
     Chapter 5: A Tale Of Two Distributions
     Chapter 6: Sampling
     Chapter 7: Confidence Intervals
     Chapter 8: Hypothesis Testing
     Chapter 9: Comparing Two Populations
          See Day 8: Independent t-Test
     Chapter 10: Experimental Design
          See Day 10: Advanced Procedures
     Chapter 11: Regression
          See Day 5: Correlation
          See Day 6: Regression
     Chapter 12: Conclusion

Gravetter & Wallnua

 

Here is another great book for your consideration. It is clear and well-written. This is one of my favorite textbooks. I often use it when I teach intro to stats classes. Any edition is good.

Read the whole thing like a novel and then go back and focus on area you find particularly interesting.

 

 

 

 

Essentials of Statistics for the Behvioral Science
Wadsworth
Outline
     Chapter 1: Intro To Statistics
          See Day 1: Measurement
     Chapter 2: Frequency Distributions
           See Day 1: Measurement
     Chapter 3: Central Tendency
          See Day 2: Central Tendency
     Chapter 4: Variability
          See Day 3: Dispersion
     Chapter 5: z-Scores: Location of Scores and Standard Distributions
          See Day 4: z scores
     Chapter 6: Probability
          See Day 7: Probability
     Chapter 7: Probability And Samples: The Distribution Of Sample Means
          See Day 7: Probability
     Chapter 8: Introduction To Hypothesis Testing
     Chapter 9: Introduction To The t Statistics
          See Day 8: Independent t-Test
     Chapter 10: The t Test For Two Independent Means
          See Day 8: Independent t-Test
     Chapter 11: The t Test For Two Related Samples
     Chapter 12: Estimation
     Chapter 13: Introduction To Analysis Of Variances
          See Day 9: One-way ANOVA
     Chapter 14: Repeated Measures And Two-Factor Analysis
     Chapter 15: Correlation And Regression
          See Day 5: Correlation
          See Day 6: Regression
     Chapter 16: The Chi-Square Statistic: Tests
     Appendix A: Basic Mathematics Review
     Appendix B: Statistical Tables
     Appendix C: Solutions For Odd-Numbered Problems In The Text
     Appendix D: General Instructions For Using SPSS

Statistics For Psychology

One of the best things you can do in college is to build your personal library. You can Google, Yahoo or Bing everything else but you should have a few good books on your shelf. You need a general psych book, one on learning, an abnormal or personality text (to help explain your friends and relatives), and a good stat book. For the last category, here’s one you should consider.

Here is a good, hardcover, standard statistics text. It’s the fifth edition, so it’s been around long enough to get the kinks out. And it has been recently updated (2008), so it can last you for a long time. And it’s got what I’ve come to expect from Pearson (one of my favorite publishers): good paper, great graphics, and not overly flashy. It’s two-color, which is enough to give the pages some interest but not so colorful as to be distracting.

Aron, Aron & Coups do a good job with the material. It’s pretty straightforward. It’s not great writing–compared to me, of course J–but it won’t wear you out. Stats is best when presented straight ahead, and this trio pretty much does that. It doesn’t spend as much time on when to use what technique, or what the underlying assumptions are, but that’s not uncommon. This is a very serviceable book, and I give it high marks.

 

Aron, Arthur, Aron, Elaine & Coups, Elliot
Statistics for Psychology
1994-2009
5^th edition

Table of Contents
    Chapter 1: Displaying the Order In a Group of Numbers
          See Day 1: Measurement
    Chapter 2: The Mean, Variance, Standard Deviation and Z Scores
          See Day 2: Central Tendency
          See Day 3: Dispersion
          See Day 4: z scores
    Chapter 3: Some Key Ingredients for Inferential Statistics
    Chapter 4: Introduction to Hypothesis Testing
            See Day 1: Measurement
    Chapter 5: Hypothesis Tests With Means of Samples
    Chapter 6: Making Sense of Statistical Significance
          See Day 7: Probability
    Chapter 7: Introduction to the t Test
    Chapter 8: The t Test For Independent Means
          See Day 8: Independent t-Test
    Chapter 9: Introduction to the Analysis of Variance
          See Day 9: One-way ANOVA
    Chapter 10: Factorial Analysis of Variance
          See Day 10: Advanced Procedures
    Chapter 11: Correlation
          See Day 5: Correlation
    Chapter 12: Prediction
          See Day 6: Regression
    Chapter 13: Chi-Square Tests
    Chapter 14: Strategies When Population Distributions Are Not Normal
    Chapter 15: Making Sense of Advd Stat Procedures in Research Articles
          See Day 10: Advanced Procedures

Sadistic Statistics

Gideon Horowitz’s classic book has a name that many people can relate to. Sometimes it does seem that statistics was invented to cause us problems, rather than solve them. The fates are sadistic.

Mr. Horowitz includes a good review of math functions: fractions (adding, subtracting..), percentiles, negative numbers, and squares, roots and how to approach formulas. I assume that you have this knowledge, or can Google it. And since its 30 years since this book was written, computers and calculators are so much more accessible. So I leave all of these things to technology. I probably shouldn’t, given that our math literacy may have dropped over that same time frame. I might have to reconsider.

He spends more time on coding than I do, and covers several topic my book ignores completely (chi-square, the sign test, and Wilcoxon signed-rank test). One of Horowitz’s best illustrations is how we misuse sampling in everyday life. We meet one person but conclude that “all men are alike.” In fact, we haven’t collected much data on the subject, certainly not enough to justify such a conclusion. It’s the danger we face when we use small samples: they often lead us to unwarranted speculation.

Although the book is out of print, it’s a good read, easy to understand, and worth having if you can find a copy. The official title is Sadistic Statistics: An Intro to Statistics for the Social and Behavioral Sciences (Avery Publishing, 1979-1981).

Here is an outline of its contents, and links to my take on those topics.

Sadistic Statistics
Outline

Chapter 1: Introduction
Chapter 2: A review of simple things
     Fractions, percentiles, negative numbers
Chapter 3: Basic concepts
   Variables and constants, levels of measurement, 
    Populations and samples
    See Day 1: Measurement
Chapter 4: Organizing your data
    Data tables and coding
    See Day 1: Measurement
    See Coding
Chapter 5: Measures of central tendency
    Central tendency, mean, median & mode
    See Day 2: Central Tendency
Chapter 6: Measures of dispersion
    Range, variance, and Sum of Squares
    See Day 3: Dispersion
Chapter 7: The normal distribution
    See Day 2: Central Tendency
Chapter 8: A brief introduction to sampling and to Where it leads
    Sample size, proportions, and impact of poor sampling
Chapter 9: Now do we get to probability? Probably
    See Day 7: Probability
Chapter 10: The t distribution
    Degrees of freedom, t-tests, and 1- and 2-tailed hypotheses
    See Day 8: Independent t-Test
Chapter 11: The chi squared distribution
    See Day 5: Correlation
Chapter 12: Correlation
    See Day 5: Correlation
Chapter 13: Just for fun
    Sign test, Wilcoxon signed ranks, phi and c coefficients
Tables