Statistics achievement: A function of attitudes and related experiences

The effects of previous mathematics, statistics, and computer science coursework; attitudes toward statistics and computers; and mathematics ability on statistics achievement were studied for 289 college students over four semesters. A secondary purpose of the study was to determine the effect of the computer laboratory component of an inferential statistics class on students' end of course attitudes. No statistically significant differences were found between students taught with a computer laboratory and those taught without the computer component for attitudes toward statistics, but those taught by computer exhibited more positive attitudes toward the computer and less statistical anxiety at the end of the course.