1. Introduction to Statistics for the Social Sciences SBS200 - Lecture Section 001, Fall 2018 Room 150 Harvill Building 10: :50 Mondays, Wednesdays & Fridays.
Welcome

2. Please fill this out

4. Lab sessions Everyone will want to be enrolled
in one of the lab sessions
No Labs
This week

5. Start by reading Please read:
Online supplemental reading 1 (Appendix D)

6. Textbooks Primary Text: Introductory Statistics. OpenStax College
E.copies are available free online
Hard copies are available bookstore
Selected readings from
Online supplemental reading 1 (Appendix D)
100 Questions (and Answers) About Research Methods. Neil J Salkind (2012).
The Psychology of Judgment and Decision Making. S Plous (1993).

7. Course website http://courses.eller.arizona.edu/mgmt/delaney/
Announcements
Syllabus
Link to D2L
Grades
Homework assignments

8. Let’s start with four short demonstrations
Why study stats?
Let’s start with four short demonstrations

9. Important: Try not to mix up the lists!!
Demonstration 1: A Memory Test
Try to remember these word lists for a recall test
Important: Try not to mix up the lists!!

10. Why does that work?

11. Demonstration 2: A Counting Test
Count how many times the ball is passed by the
team in the white shirts
(not the black shirts – just the white)

13. Why does that work?

14. Demonstration 3: A Test of Disambiguation

15. Right half of room
Please close your eyes

16. Really !

17. .
This is a rat

18. Left half of room
Please close your eyes

19. Really !

20. .
This is a man

21. Everyone
Please open your eyes

23. .
What is this a picture of?

24. .
This is a rat
This is a man
What is this a picture of?

25. Expectations affect our perceptions of the world.
Everyday our “biases” affect how we see
the world and make decisions.
Expectations affect our perceptions of the world.
Our knowledge affects our perceptions of the world.
New knowledge can reshape what we see.

26. Demonstration 4: Another Test of Disambiguation
New knowledge can reshape what we see.

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39. Demonstration 1: Our prior knowledge will influence
our memories – inserting what was never there
Demonstration 2: Our interests will
influence what we see – making
invisible what is right in front of us
Demonstration 3: Our recent experiences will influence what we see – making one interpretation much more likely
Demonstration 4: Our current environment will influence what we see – making images meaningful

40. Not just “tricks”, but demonstrations that show even the most basic interpretations of what we perceive and remember in the physical world is malleable and vulnerable.
How we interpret social interactions and other problems are similarly vulnerable to bias. Careful measurement helps us account for these biases.

41. Why study stats?
Every day we disambiguate what we see, remember, interpret and understand.
Every time we see, or remember, or understand a problem we are vulnerable to biases.
Biases can impede or improve our decision making.
(We want to minimize “bad biases” while maximizing
“good biases” to our decision making)
It is important to be aware of our own vulnerability to biases and illusions in social settings and in even the most basic daily experiences.

42. Statistics and research methods allow us to try to
“take into account” our natural tendencies
for specific kinds of biases
“When presented new information, we have no other option than to relate it to what we already know – there is no blank space in our minds within which new information can be stored so as not to “contaminate” it with existing information”
- Clifford Konold, Scientific Reasoning Research Institute, University of Massachusetts*
* From Issues in Assessing Conceptual Understanding in Probability and Statistics
By Clifford Konold, University of Massachusetts.
Journal of Statistics Education v.3, n.1 (1995)

43. Why study stats?
POWER!! Be able to defend that your methods are better than others – lead to advancement

44. Why study stats?
Cake: Cops:

45. Why study statistics? Literacy in language of statistics
Study of stats provides opportunity for improving your computer literacy and management of databases and technical literacy
Data management
Too much??! - Stats can help you simplify
Too little ??!? – Stats can help you fill in the blanks (smartly)
Career Advancement (how helpful you are to others)
Improvement of own critical thinking
(own life-long cognitive development)

46. Introduction to Statistics in the Social Sciences
What is this course for?
Improve skills for using data to inform our daily decisions and to avoid problems that arise from biases and illusions.
Exploring the assumptions and principles underlying
experimental methodologies and findings
Practice critical evaluation of data and claims both in
the popular media and in scientific publications
Practice completing calculations and applying the solutions
to applied situations in daily life and in scientific inquiry

47. Introduction to Statistics in the Social Sciences
How will we do it?
Lectures and reading
Laboratory research and projects
In-class assignments
Homework assignments

48. Introduction to Statistics in the Social Sciences
Instructor: Suzanne Delaney, Ph.D.
Office: 405 “N” McClelland Hall
Phone:
Office hours: 2:00 – 3:30 Monday and Wednesdays and by appointment

49. Introduction to Statistics in the Social Sciences
Grading
Short writing assignments - 20 points (lowest 3 will be dropped)
Homework assignments - 20 points (no assignments will be dropped)
Laboratory activities points
Four multiple choice exams points

50. Short Writing Assignments
Regular short writing assignments most will be in-class
some of these reflect in-class activities and interactions and it will not be possible to make them up worth a total of 20 points - writing form is available online

51. .
Short Writing Assignment Form

52. Homework Assignments
Regular homework assignments will be assigned in class. Some assignments will be from the textbooks, while others will be reports of other activities. Homework assignments will be worth a total of 20 points.

53. Writing Assignments and Homeworks are meant to:
Provide opportunities to apply concepts in the class to other contexts to help generate semantically rich representations of the material
2) discuss applications of class concepts with others in the class
3) think critically and make distinctions between
related concepts
4) exploit our knowledge of elaborative encoding
to maximize test performance.

54. Exams Four exams - 100 points each Multiple choice
Make-ups only in cases of emergency
All exams will be cumulative

55. Exams are designed to:
1) encourage formation of factual knowledge that can be called upon when integrating important concepts
encourage application of concepts to contextually rich situations
3) encourage critical thinking and highlight
distinctions between related concepts

56. Evaluation and assignment of grades
1. Short writing assignments (20 points)
2. Homework (20 points)
3. Labs (60 points)
4. Exams (400 points)

57. Assignment of grades 500 possible points
= 90% = A = 80% = B = 70% = C = 60% = D Below = E

58. Please note additional reading assignments will be assigned in class
Assigned readings
Please note additional reading assignments will be assigned in class

59. Introduction to Statistics in the Social Sciences
It’s better if you
don’t miss class !!!
Cumulative course
Start quickly
Attending class is a requirement
Use notes and homework as a guide for what to study
Math background and concerns . .

60. By the end of today... Requirements for the course
What is descriptive vs inferential statistics?
What is quantitative vs qualitative data?
What is an independent vs dependent variable?
How is a study that uses correlational methodology
different from one that uses experimental methodology?
What are the four “levels of measurement”?
Nominal
Ordinal
Interval
Ratio

61. Missed Classes and exams
If you do miss a class try to get notes from a classmate you are still responsible for information
Make-up exams will be given only in cases of emergency
If you know you will miss an exam, you may make arrangements to take a similar exam at an earlier time.

62. Thank you!
See you next time!!