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Description:
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Statistics and hypothesis testing are routinely used in areas (such as
linguistics) that are traditionally not mathematically intensive. In such fields,
when faced with experimental data, many students and researchers tend to
rely on commercial packages to carry out statistical data analysis, often
without understanding the logic of the statistical tests they rely on. As a
consequence, results are often misinterpreted, and users have difficulty in
flexibly applying techniques relevant to their own research -- they use
whatever they happen to have learned. A simple solution is to teach the
fundamental ideas of statistical hypothesis testing without using too much
mathematics. This book provides a non-mathematical, simulation-based
introduction to basic statistical concepts and encourages readers to try out
the simulations themselves using the source code and data provided (the
freely available programming language R is used throughout). Since the code
presented in the text almost always requires the use of previously introduced
programming constructs, diligent students also acquire basic programming
abilities in R. The book is intended for advanced undergraduate and graduate
students in any discipline, although the focus is on linguistics, psychology,
and cognitive science. It is designed for self-instruction, but it can also be
used as a textbook for a first course on statistics. Earlier versions of the
book have been used in undergraduate and graduate courses in Europe and
the US.
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