These notes accompany Chapter 1 — Statistics and samples — of our textbook. The reading below is required, Whitlock and Schluter (2020) is not, but is encouraged.
Motivating scenario: You have seen or heard about statistics, but you don’t really know what people are getting at. You hear words like “p-value”, “statistically significant”, “effect size”, “bias”, or “nonindependent” but can’t pinpoint exactly what they mean?
Learning goals: By the end of this chapter you should be able to
Get a sense of what motivates statisticians.
Be able to explain the difference between a population and a sample, a parameter and an estimate, the relationship between these four concepts, and the things which can make a sample deviate from a population.
Have a sense of why as statisticians, we must consider the type of data and variables in building models.
Understand the differences in motivation and what we can get out of an observational and experimental study.