Badly behaved data, part 1: Create and plot the data
Tag Archives: normal distribution
Research concepts: The Normal Distribution
At Scientifically Sound, we have shown how to verify whether data are Normally distributed, and discussed whether it matters that data are Normally distributed. Let’s take a step back and consider what a Normal distribution is. A Normal distribution is a bell-shaped curve observed when the number of data points that occur in a population (y-axis) is plotted against the
Read moreResearch concepts: Overview
An important part of conducting sound science involves interpreting data correctly. Unfortunately, we don’t do that very well. For example, we are fooled by regression to the mean, we report findings when there are none, and we are overconfident about statistical power and significance. As scientists and lay persons, we want to be certain about research findings. But statistics only
Read moreDoes it matter that data are Normally distributed?
Hypothesis testing vs. Estimation Hypothesis tests require that populations are Normally distributed in order for the tests to be reliable. When samples are drawn from Normally distributed populations, the distributions of F or t statistics can be calculated for any given sample size, and the F or t statistic for a specific experiment can be obtained from the distribution. This
Read moreVerify if data are normally distributed in R: part 3
In the first and second post of this series, we learned how to graph our data using histograms and Q-Q plots to see whether it is normally distributed, and quantify the shape of the distribution by considering skew and kurtosis. In this, the final post in this series, we will learn to use the Shapiro-Wilk test to determine whether data
Read moreVerify if data are normally distributed in R: part 2
In our previous post, we learned how to inspect whether or data were normally distributed or not using plots. It is always important to visualise our data. However, inspecting such plots is open for interpretation and, possibly, abuse. We will now learn how to analyse our data and generate numerical values that describe how our data are distributed. Quantifying the
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