Statistics
Here Are 13 Subtle Ways Statistics Can Deceive You
No one can argue with statistics because they are hard facts. — are they really? By this time, a lot of us have done a great job realising that not everything we see on the internet is true. Some of the information we receive is deliberately manipulated in order to influence our behavior or our …
Statistics For Dummies: Indexing And Subsetting In R [Part 2 of 2] : Lists And Data Frames
Last time, we discussed how to index or subset vectors and matrices in R. Now, we will deal with indexing the other commonly used R objects: lists and data frames. Typically, we will not be dealing with data with the level of simplicity of vectors and matrices. Most of the time, more structure with the …
Statistics For Dummies: Indexing and Subsetting In R [Part 1 of 2] : Vectors And Matrices
Previously, we talked about the objects in R and how they are created. Now, we will discuss how information can be extracted from these objects. This process is also known as indexing or subsetting. The ability to access information is important since there are times that we only need a specific data point or subset …
What Is It To Be Bayesian? The (Pretty Simple) Math Modelling Behind A Big Data Buzzword
If you’ve ever tripped up over the term ‘Bayesian’ while reading up on data or tech, fear not. Strip away the jargon and notation, and even the mathematics-averse can make sense of the simple yet revolutionary concept at the core of both machine learning and behavioural economics. As this video from the YouTube channel 3Blue1Brown …
A Short Primer On Generalized Linear Models (GLM)
Generalized Linear Models (GLM) refers to a large class of models which include the familiar ordinary linear regression — ordinary least squares (OLS) regression — and the analysis of variance (ANOVA) models. A bag loaded with tricks (models, rather) Both OLS regression and ANOVA deal with continuous response variables. However, there are times that we …
Statistics For Dummies: Type I And Type II Errors
You often hear Type I and Type II errors in statistics classes. There is good reason for that — minimizing either of these two errors is pretty much the core of statistical theory. Preliminaries Type I and Type II errors are related to the concept of hypothesis testing. In hypothesis testing, we have two hypotheses: …
The Weird Ones: How To Handle Outliers In Your Data
Outliers in data are the weird ones in a set. Their values are way off the rest of the values of the sample. They can really ruin your analysis, especially if you are using methods which are sensitive to the presence of outliers. Given this, a lot are inclined to remove these observations. While this …
How To: Perform Tests for Normality in R
Normality is one assumption that you will typically encounter in statistical methods that you will employ. A lot of the tests that were created have an underlying assumption that your data is normal. A large number of parametric tests assume normality of data. Ordinary least squares regression assumes it for its error terms, too. You can …
Statistics for Dummies: Levels of Measurement
Arguably one of the most important skills you must have in order to get started with using statistical methods is knowing the scale or level of measurement of your data. The appropriate method of analysis for your data is dependent on the scale it was measured in. Here’s a quick rundown of the four levels …
Statistics for Dummies: The Normal Distribution
The normal distribution is arguably the most used distribution in statistics. A lot of statistical methods rely on assuming that your data is normally distributed. What is so special about it? The infamous bell The normal distribution is characterized by its trademark bell-shaped curve. The shape of the bell curve is dictated by two parameters. …