Power

I have been going over the chapter on power. Howell refers to this site: http://www.psycho.uni-duesseldorf.de/aap/projects/gpower/
you should bookmark it and download the program....
Take care,

--Dr. M

SPSS Data Sets

http://www.blackwellpublishing.com/crashcourse/data_sets.asp

Homework problem 6.34

This problem is basically testing your ability to open a data set and analyze the data.
The data are located at:
http://www.uvm.edu/~dhowell/methods/DataFiles/Mireault.dat
and the description of the data is on page 669 of the text
If you go to the webpage with the data and choose "select all"
Then open a spread sheet and "paste" you should have all of the data in one column in the spread sheet.
If you select "text to columns" under the "data" menu you can parse the data into columns
You can save (and close) the spread sheet and then import it into SPSS.
To import the data into SPSS select "open" "data" from the "file" menu.
When you get the "open file" dialog box change the file type to (*.xls)
Go to the directory you saved your .xls file into and open the file.
Make sure you tell SPSS to read in the variable names (check the box).
Click OK and you should have the data in SPSS.
You will have to go back to the text p 669 to figure out what the variables are.
The book tells you there are some missing data indicated by periods - you need to tell SPSS this by going into the variable view, otherwise the analysis will be goofy.
I just entered 999 for the missing values in the data set (hint - make sure SPSS knows it is numeric) and then told SPSS that 999 was the value for missing data (hint - you can sort cases and then just copy and paste the values)
The question asks you to use the variables gender and college - these are easy to identify - so let's do a chi square analysis and enter the two variables - notice that we do not have to weigh cases because we have all of the data needed...
Hope this helps,

--Dr. M

Effect Size

Chapter 7 will include a discussion on effect size. If you want more information beyond what Howell has provided you may want to visit the following web site: http://web.uccs.edu/lbecker/Psy590/es.htm

Take care,

--Dr. M

Data Sets for Homework Problems

Some of you probably have found Howell's page on data sets corresponding to the chapters - but here it is for those who haven't. Looking at the dats sets can also give you an idea of how to enter the data into SPSS...
http://www.uvm.edu/~dhowell/methods/DataFiles/DataSets.html

I hope this helps,

--Dr. M

Lecture Notes from Thursday

Hi - I emailed the lecture notes from Thrusday just now. If you did not receive them just email me and I'll make sure you get them.
Have a great weekend,

--Dr. M

Sampling Distributions Applett

The Central Limit Theorem – How to Tame Wild Populations
This site has a nice applett that demonstrates sampling error
http://www.intuitor.com/statistics/CentralLim.html

--Dr. M

Type l and type ll errors

Type I and Type II Errors - Making Mistakes in the Justice System
This is a good refresher on type one and type two errors...
http://www.intuitor.com/statistics/T1T2Errors.html

--Dr. M

Sneak Preview of Next Week

Next week we will be covering Chapters 4 and 6 (we will skip chapter 5 for now). Chapter 4 has some very important concepts in it. Please be sure to have read the chapter before class. On Thursday we will finish off Chapter 4 and then begin chapter 6 (and finish it up the following week (so there will be 2 homeworks for chapter 6). Homework for Chapter 4 will be 4.2, 4.3, 4.4, 4.5, 4.6, 4.7, 4.13, 4.14, 4.15, 4.20, plus an assignment using SPSS Syntax (more info later), and will be due on Friday the 15th by 5:00
Homework for first part of Chapter 6 will be 6.1, 6.3, 6.4, 6.8, 6.9, 6.10, 6.11, 6.13, 6.15, 6.17, 6.21, 6.22, 6.23 and will be due Tuesday the 19th during class.
Homework for the second part of Chapter 6 will be 6.24, 6.29, 6.32, 6.33 to 6.38 and will be due Friday the 22nd by 5:00
I will update the web pages a bit later - I just thought some of you might want this information ASAP.
Take care,

--Dr. M

Home work due 9/12

Hi,For the homework due this Tuesday, please spend a some time working with Excel so you can get more familiar with this powerful tool.Experiment with the paste special, the functions (e.g., =average( ) ), fill down and fill over, and graphing functions.Using one of your data sets, make a graph and explain it as though it were a figure in a results section of a manuscript you are writing (Hint you may want to describe the variables you are using for the graph what they are (THC Level) and use some descriptive statistics. I am not looking for anything in particular other than for evidence that you spent some time thinking about Excel and that you understand how to make a graph and how to discuss a graph). This should be rather straight forward (not too difficult), I just want you to get and stay familiar with Excel, so you use it when you need it.Thanks a lot - Have a good weekend.

--Dr. M

Exam 1

Vocabulary section

Comment:
I was curious as to how I should study for the vocabulary. For instance, am I going to have to pull the term from the knowledge bank in my head or will there be a bank provided with the terms to choose from.

Response:
Here is an example of how I used Howell's glossary of terms for the exam. This is what he has for bimodal...
Bimodal - A distribution having two distinct peaks.
If this were on the exam it would look like this...
A distribution having two distinct peaks _____________
And you would have to write "Bimodal." You will be required to recall the definitions from memory of the key terms from chapters 1, 2, and 3.
I hope that helps,

--Dr. M

Excel Tutorial

I ran across a good Excel tutorial at:
http://departments.oxy.edu/its/training/excel/excel_charts.html
Check it out...

Homework due 9/5

Due Tuesday 9/5 - On pages 79 & 80 do exercises 3.1 to 3.19 (ODD ONLY) and Discussion questions 3.20 and 3.22