Foreword
- Page ID
- 48108
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\(\newcommand{\avec}{\mathbf a}\) \(\newcommand{\bvec}{\mathbf b}\) \(\newcommand{\cvec}{\mathbf c}\) \(\newcommand{\dvec}{\mathbf d}\) \(\newcommand{\dtil}{\widetilde{\mathbf d}}\) \(\newcommand{\evec}{\mathbf e}\) \(\newcommand{\fvec}{\mathbf f}\) \(\newcommand{\nvec}{\mathbf n}\) \(\newcommand{\pvec}{\mathbf p}\) \(\newcommand{\qvec}{\mathbf q}\) \(\newcommand{\svec}{\mathbf s}\) \(\newcommand{\tvec}{\mathbf t}\) \(\newcommand{\uvec}{\mathbf u}\) \(\newcommand{\vvec}{\mathbf v}\) \(\newcommand{\wvec}{\mathbf w}\) \(\newcommand{\xvec}{\mathbf x}\) \(\newcommand{\yvec}{\mathbf y}\) \(\newcommand{\zvec}{\mathbf z}\) \(\newcommand{\rvec}{\mathbf r}\) \(\newcommand{\mvec}{\mathbf m}\) \(\newcommand{\zerovec}{\mathbf 0}\) \(\newcommand{\onevec}{\mathbf 1}\) \(\newcommand{\real}{\mathbb R}\) \(\newcommand{\twovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\ctwovec}[2]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\threevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cthreevec}[3]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfourvec}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\fivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{r}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\cfivevec}[5]{\left[\begin{array}{c}#1 \\ #2 \\ #3 \\ #4 \\ #5 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\mattwo}[4]{\left[\begin{array}{rr}#1 \amp #2 \\ #3 \amp #4 \\ \end{array}\right]}\) \(\newcommand{\laspan}[1]{\text{Span}\{#1\}}\) \(\newcommand{\bcal}{\cal B}\) \(\newcommand{\ccal}{\cal C}\) \(\newcommand{\scal}{\cal S}\) \(\newcommand{\wcal}{\cal W}\) \(\newcommand{\ecal}{\cal E}\) \(\newcommand{\coords}[2]{\left\{#1\right\}_{#2}}\) \(\newcommand{\gray}[1]{\color{gray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\lgray}[1]{\color{lightgray}{#1}}\) \(\newcommand{\rank}{\operatorname{rank}}\) \(\newcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\col}{\text{Col}}\) \(\renewcommand{\row}{\text{Row}}\) \(\newcommand{\nul}{\text{Nul}}\) \(\newcommand{\var}{\text{Var}}\) \(\newcommand{\corr}{\text{corr}}\) \(\newcommand{\len}[1]{\left|#1\right|}\) \(\newcommand{\bbar}{\overline{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bhat}{\widehat{\bvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\bperp}{\bvec^\perp}\) \(\newcommand{\xhat}{\widehat{\xvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\vhat}{\widehat{\vvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\uhat}{\widehat{\uvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\what}{\widehat{\wvec}}\) \(\newcommand{\Sighat}{\widehat{\Sigma}}\) \(\newcommand{\lt}{<}\) \(\newcommand{\gt}{>}\) \(\newcommand{\amp}{&}\) \(\definecolor{fillinmathshade}{gray}{0.9}\)A Note from Dr. Kara DeSouza:
Below you'll find the original Foreword to this book from Dr. Garrett Foster, one of its original authors. Because of the unique nature of LibreText and open source textbooks, I have been able to customize Dr. Foster's text to exactly the topics relevant to our class. I have also drawn from a second text to cover some material missing from the Foster text but which is necessary and beneficial to know for your best success in this class. That second open source textbook is by Dr. Alisa Beyer of Chandler-Gilbert Community College in Chandler, AZ. You can assume all chapters are by Dr. Foster and the other authors on the original project (listed below), unless it is specifically pointed out that the chapter is by Dr. Beyer. I am also indebted to Judy Schmitt of the University of Missouri-St. Louis for the excellent illustratations she created for the Cote, et al (2021) update of the book, which I have used to make the illustrations in this edition as accessible and readable as possible. As a professor, I am deeply grateful to all of these authors for the immense time commitment put into creating high quality and free educational content. I am also very grateful the LibreText system exists to host and allow me to customize, these textbooks just for my PSYC 330 classes at Sacramento City College.
See you in class!
-Kara
Foreword by Dr. Foster:
We are constantly bombarded by information, and finding a way to filter that information in an objective way is crucial to surviving this onslaught with your sanity intact. This is what statistics, and logic we use in it, enables us to do. Through the lens of statistics, we learn to find the signal hidden in the noise when it is there and to know when an apparent trend or pattern is really just randomness. The study of statistics involves math and relies upon calculations of numbers. But it also relies heavily on how the numbers are chosen and how the statistics are interpreted.
This work was created as part of the University of Missouri’s Affordable and Open Access Educational Resources Initiative (https://www.umsystem.edu/ums/aa/oer). The contents of this work have been adapted from the following Open Access Resources: Online Statistics Education: A Multimedia Course of Study (http://onlinestatbook.com/). Project Leader: David M. Lane, Rice University. Changes to the original works were made by Dr. Garett C. Foster in the Department of Psychological Sciences to tailor the text to fit the needs of the introductory statistics course for psychology majors at the University of Missouri – St. Louis. Materials from the original sources have been combined, reorganized, and added to by the current author, and any conceptual, mathematical, or typographical errors are the responsibility of the current author.
Recommended Citations
Beyer, Alisa. Introduction to Statistics for Psychology. Maricopa Open Digital Press, 2021, https://open.maricopa.edu/psy230mm/.
Cote, Linda R.; Gordon, Rupa; Randell, Chrislyn E.; Schmitt, Judy; and Marvin, Helena, "Introduction to Statistics in the Psychological Sciences" (2021). Open Educational Resources Collection. 25. Available at: https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/25 - Version 08/01/2023 (Minor Revision)
Foster, Garett C.; Lane, David; Scott, David; Hebl, Mikki; Guerra, Rudy; Osherson, Dan; and Zimmer, Heidi, "An Introduction to Psychological Statistics" (2018). Open Educational Resources Collection. 4.
https://irl.umsl.edu/oer/4
Chapters 4 and 11 cover icons by Freepik, found on Flaticon, 2024, https://www.freepik.com/.
Chapter 9 cover icon by Iconiic, found on Flaticon, 2024.
Chapter 10 cover icon by Pause8, found on Flaticon, 2024.
Chapter 12 cover icon by Afian Rochmah Afif, found on Flaticon, 2024, https://www.flaticon.com/authors/afian-rochmah-afif.
Many illustrations throughout the chapters were created by Judy Scmitt of the University of Missouri at St. Louis, and were originally published in Cote et al, 2021.