Improving Statistical Reasoning: Theoretical Models and Practical Implications

Statistical literacy, the art of drawing reasonable inferences from an abundance of numbers provided daily by the media, is indispensable for an educated citizenship, as are reading and writing. Unlike reading and writing, however, sound statistical reasoning is rarely taught, and if it has been taught, it was with little success. This book presents and discusses new empirical and theoretical results about the topic of eveyday statistical reasoning, that is, how people think and act on probabilistic information. It focuses on how porcesses of statistical reasoning work in detail and how training programs can exploit natural cognitive capabilities to improve statistical reasoning. (From preface)