Math 151 , Fall 2006 Friday Day 24, Oct. 20 Hit reload...After class

HW:  Finish Chapter 9.Check p. 228: 9.16, 17, 18, 20 (obs/expt, factors)  Then 21 (choosing groups), then 9.19, 22, 23, 25 (types).   Read Data Ethics, pp. 235-242 if you haven't. Read  Ch. 10 to p. 256, def. of Random Variable (discrete) p. 260.  Check p. 263ff. 10.19, 20, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27.
Hand in  Monday

p. 233, 9.45 d antioxidants (review) 
 
p. 223 9.10 significance on Monday

Postpone these two: p. 226, 9.13 hand strength, MP
p. 231, 9.35
forest CO2

p. 226, 9.15 teaching techn.  Why might I call this a  matched pairs rather than a general block design?   Don't actually do the randomization, but think about what ought to be done; we'll talk about it.
p. 232, 9.40 TV ads, block design.  Use the  Applet, to assign your subjects.  Number your Women and your Men, and show their numbers as well as the group they're in. 
p. 229, 232, 9.27 and 9.39 wine, beer, spirits two ways
- - - - - - - - - -
Hand in Monday:  "Ethics": Read Data Ethics, pp 235-242.  Find at least one other person in the class, and together discuss  one of these questions.  Write up your answers (If you have consensus, fine! If you disagree, say who thinks what).  pp. 242-245, # 4 or 5 or 9 or 11 or 13 or 14 or 17
= = = = =Postpone Chapter 10 = = = = = = = =
p. 249, 10.1 Texas Hold'em
p. 249, 10.3 50, 200 Random digits.  Bring your result for (b) to class to compare with others.  I did it twice, got .06, .09
  Applet:  Probability
p. 250, 10.4 Probability says..

p. 265, 10.30 Sample spaces, free throws
p. 252, 10.5 Sample spaces

p. 254, 10.9 Canadian languages
p. 254, 10, 12 Watching TV
p. 261, 10.16 Grades RV
p. 266, 10.37 Land in Canada

p. 265, 10.31 Probability models?  Note, you only are checking whether the model is legitimate, not whether it's correct for the phenomenon described!
p. 252, 10.6 and 10.7 D&D, 4-sided dice
p. 267, 10.42 Race and ethnicity

Read, to discuss

p. 232, 9.38  spine fractures You lack the information to make a complete design (i.e. how many women at each hospital.)  Sketch in what you can.

Optional 


p. 226, 9.14 matched and not, more practice

Exam Friday Oct 27 (Day 27), a week from today.  Bring one sheet of notes.  Chapters 8 and 9 and (part? of) 10--through HW assigned Monday.
   Sample exam available today.  Solutions outside my door and on reserve Monday.
In class I noted that there is no problem on the sample involving two (or more) factors, but such questions could be on the exam.
I have been known to ask questions on the exam specifically on the "outside" reading, such as the Placebo Effect articles.
Monday 12:30-1:30 I will be here (Mac 321) to help review Normal distribution: we'll want it soon after the exam.
Homework questions:  Day 23


Polling technique: " Arcuri-Meier congressional race calls polling techniques into question,"  Ithaca Journal yesterday, and others? Oct. 19, 06
http://www.theithacajournal.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20061019/NEWS01/610190354&SearchID=73260333364329
Review Table B, random numbers: Day 20

Placebo effect: 
b) What do researchers believe causes the placebo effect? 

Ch. 9 Designing Experiments, finishing  See Day 22Day 23  for more  notes

Principles of designing an experiment: Compare groups with different treatments:   Control as much as you can, to make all the groups the same except for treatments, Randomize the rest; Use enough subjects  to average out bad "chance" .
   "Randomized comparative experiment"

More issues:
--Placebo
and biasing effects--avoiding:   "Blind",  "Double blind."
--Lack of realism:   Do sociology, psychology experiments generalize to "real life?"
--Subjects are not a random sample from the population. (Most psychology "facts" were based on studies of Ivy League males, before 1970's.)
--Ethical questions...Milgram. Zimbardo prison. Whole section BPS4e, pp. 235-242
 
Statistical Significance p.221: An observed effect so large that it would rarely occur by chance (assuming no real difference in treatments) is called "statistically significant".   "So large", "rarely", "by chance" will be defined and quantified in Ch. 6.
Example:  Suppose 95% of the subjects  had their headaches cured by treatment 9 and only 25%  by treatment 1 (placebo).  IF the medicine in fact did "no good" that would be a very unlikely outcome (at least if we have "enough" people in each treatment).  So we will say the difference in headache cures between treatment 1 and treatment 9 is "statistically significant" and be inclined to believe the medicine "works".

= = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = = Got to here Friday, also Block design.
Completely randomized experiment: all subjects are allocated at random among the treatments.
Fancier Experimental designs (not "completely randomized") Control extraneous variability by pre-sorting individuals into  homogeneous groups.  (BPS4e pp. 224-226)
Matched pairs: To compare Control and experimental treatments (i.e. 2 levels)
   Sort experimental units into "matching" pairs.   One member of pair gets control, other gets experimental.
                Randomize which.
        Compare within pair, then summarize all comparisons.
  Common: Do the control and experiment to same individual (matched with self). (Randomize order)
        Are right feet bigger than left feet? (not an experiment)      Sunburn salve experiment?
    Aside:  Sampling data, "longitudinal study" following same people through time.
            Works like matched pair to control variability.
Block design:  Sort experimental units into "Blocks" = groups homogeneous on potentially confounding variables
     e.g. M/F, age, income, weight, fruitflies wild or curly-winged.  (No randomization here.)
    Within each block, randomize the treatments. Compare results  within each block, then summarize all results.
    (Matched pairs is a special case of block design--each pair is a "block".)   Diagram p. 226

+ + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + + +
 In practice, you may not be able to do the ideal experiment:  Sometimes the treatments cannot be deliberately  imposed (ethical reasons, practical reasons) and we must observe the explanatory variables (and the response) . (Can't force people to smoke.)   Included in this may be even intrusive measurements, assessments.
Not in text: "Prospective study--retrospective study."  (Both observational studies)
Observational Study:  Observe individuals; don't do anything to them; do not influence the responses.  Can indicate strength of relationship, differences, but not cause and effect.  (Often not with samples, but with selected group(s).)  Lurking variables?!? (Fisher:  Smokers smoke to soothe irritabilities that may cause cancer.)
----Retrospective:  gather data after the fact (Observe that x% of men hospitalized with heart disease were/are smokers.  ) Some of the problems:  reliability of memory, records.  Comparisons are hard.  Others...
 ----Prospective:  choose individuals in advance. Measure them; or follow them, as events happen.  Still have problems of lurking/confounding variables. (Framingham Heart Study: 5,209 (2,873 women and 2,336 men) healthy residents between 30 and 60 years of age.  Followed from 1948 to now. A second-generation cohort recruited 1971, Minority group 1995  http://www.framingham.com/heart/)


recall:Toward Inference: Table p. 186, Exploratory Data Analysis vs. Statistical Inference
Chapter 10, Probability (intro)
Chance  behavior (a random phenomenon): Unpredictable in the short run,  predictable regular pattern in the long run.
  (Random numbers:  equally likely in the long run.  "Random" in this chapter  is more general--pattern is not necessarily equally likely)
25 digits from the random number table: Individual sets of 25 showed much variability.  Pooled  shows more "flatness" --but still much variability.  You would be right to be skeptical when I told you that your "pick-a-number" choices were not random, on the basis of just this class's data.  Not enough to necessarily show the pattern.

"Probability" of particular something happening: proportion of times it would happen in a very long series of (independent) repetitions of the phenomenon.   Applet:  Probability
    (independence:  outcome of one trial (repetition) must not influence the outcome of any other.)

Probability Models : (p. 250-256)
Random phenomenon, described by
    Sample space S:  set of all possible outcomes (no overlap of descriptions)
    Event:  any outcome or set of outcomes
    Probability model: S, and a way of assigning a probability to each event.
Sample space depends on what you want to know:
Phenomenon: Flip coin twice.
    S1 = {HH, HT, TH, TT}     S2 = {0, 1, 2} number of heads   S3 = {Y, N} both are heads?

Probability rules:  pp. 253, in words, then in notation.
A an event in sample space S, P(A) is "the probability that  A occurs"
    These rules are all true for proportions in long run (Probabilities), proportion of counts, proportions of areas.
    1.  0 < P(A) < 1   (any probability is a number between 0 and 1. )
    2. P(S) = 1         (all the outcomes together have total probability 1)
    3.  A and B are  disjoint if they have no outcomes in common (can't happen simultaneously.)
        If A and B are disjoint, their probabilities add:  P(A or B) = P(A) + P(B)
   
4. For any event A, P(A does not occur) = 1 - P(A)

Pick one person from U.S. Pop. (Age 25 +)
Sample space:
No HS degree
       HS only     .
1-3 yrs College
 4 + yrs College
Proportion in pop.
18.3%
33.9%
24.8%
23.0%
Probability 
.183
.339
.248
.230
P(Not finished college or didn't start) = ?
P( HS or less) = ?

Discrete models: (Can make a list of all members of the sample space Make the list, and
Assign a probability to each outcome (>0) so they add to 1.   (Sometimes equal values make sense.)
    Prob. of an event is sum of prob's of its outcomes.

Phenomenon: Flip coin twice.
    S1 = {HH, HT, TH, TT}     S2 = {0, 1, 2} number of heads   S3 = {Y, N} both are heads?
Sample space  | HH | HT | TH | TT |
       Prob's | .25| .25| .25| .25|  P(tail followed by head)=?
Sample space  | 2  |    1    |  0 P(at least 1 tail)=?   P(1 of each) = ?
       Prob's | .25|   .50   | .25|  P(at least 1 Head)= ?  P(2 Heads) = ?
Sample space  | Y  |       N      |
       Prob's | .25|     .75      |


Often the sample space is naturally expressed in numbers, thus
Random Variable:  (X, Y, Z...) Variable whose value is a numerical outcome of a random phenomenon.
 Probability distribution of X tells us what values X can take and how to assign probabilities to them.
    If X has a finite number of possible values (Discrete distributions), nothing new except notation.
     P(X < 2) is "Prob. that X is less than 2."
Flip coin twice. R.V. X = number of heads:  Distribution given by table.
             x| 2  |    1    |  0 |
       P(X=x) | .25|   .50   | .25|  P(X > 1) = ?   Words:  Prob that # heads is > 1
                                     P(X = 2) = ?         Prob that # heads is 2


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