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Showing posts from December, 2021

Use this caffeine study to teach repeated measure design, ANOVA, etc.

Twitter is my muse. This blog post was inspired by this Tweet:    In a study comparing blood concentrations of caffeine after coffee or energy drink consumption, blood caffeine levels peaked at about 60 minutes in all conditions. Plan accordingly. https://t.co/cWWakGGtHe pic.twitter.com/c5Nn3x3w1f — Kevin Bass (@kevinnbass) November 30, 2021 This study is straightforward to follow. I, personally, think it is psych-friendly because it is about how a drug affects the body. However, it doesn't require much psych theory knowledge to follow this example. Sometimes I'm worried that when we try too many theory-heavy examples in stats class, we're muddying the waters by expecting too much from baby statisticians who are also baby psychologists. Anyway. Here are some things you can draw out of this example: 1. Factors and levels in ANOVA The factor and levels are easy to identify for students. They can also relate to these examples. I wonder if they used Bang energy drinks? They a...

Marc Rummy/Flowingdata illustration of base rate fallacy as it applies to breakthrough infections

Flowingdata is great. They create lots of exciting data visualizations and share other people's visualizations.  This visualization from Flowingdata is especially significant.   I think it illustrates base rate fallacies beautifully. Moreover, it is applied to a very crucial issue: Immunizations. The base rate fallacy has been used repeatedly to attack the efficacy of vaccines . In particular, instances when vaccinated people catch diseases for which they have been vaccinated. Frequently, such arguments fail to consider base rate data regarding how many more people are vaccinated.  This illustration from Marc Rummy is elegant and straightforward and explains a mathy/sampling/statsy concept without any actual math. I love it.  Also, this illustration has been updated recently with a bit more text to explain everything: Apparently this picture I made that was part of a post 4 months ago recently went viral. Here's a new & improved version that includes the explana...

Chi-square example involving American's beliefs about vampires. Seriously.

 OK. I'm proud of this one. I think these are good chi-square examples. And they are about Americans' beliefs about various supernatural beings. Presented with commentary because I couldn't help myself. 1. Supernatural beliefs by age Already. I fully intended to tease my traditional UGs about their beliefs about vampires. Because I do believe that would probably be a significant chi-square...but... ...IS GEN X OK? This survey asks about ghosts, demons, psychics, vampires, and werewolves. What are the "OTHER" this survey is talking about? Aliens? Dolly Parton? I'm intrigued. 2. Werewolves: The Unity Horse. The Unity Wolf? Both Trump and Biden supporters are united in their belief that werewolves do NOT exist.  Anyway. This survey is intriguing. There is a lot of material to work with.  Go read it here .  PS: Hey! If you like this idea and would love a whole stats textbook from the brain of the person who came up with this idea, sign up for more information abou...