Standard statistical concepts: Can they produce incoherence?


Book: 
Proceedings of the Seventh International Conference On Teaching Statistics (ICOTS-7), Salvador, Brazil.
Authors: 
Pereira, C. A. B.
Editors: 
Rossman, A., & Chance, B.
Category: 
Year: 
2006
Publisher: 
Voorburg, The Netherlands: International Statistical Institute.
URL: 
http://www.stat.auckland.ac.nz/~iase/publications/17/3I4_PERE.pdf
Abstract: 

The present article concerns statistical concepts that are usually presented in the statistical classroom. Examples are presented in a way such that simple applications of these concepts produce incoherent conclusions. The examples illustrate that: iid random variables are in fact strongly dependent; conditional probabilities may depend on how the conditioning arguments were learned; confidence intervals may have the property of diminished precision when information is increasing; and significance tests may not reject impossible hypotheses.

The CAUSE Research Group is supported in part by a member initiative grant from the American Statistical Association’s Section on Statistics and Data Science Education

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