standard deviation

The Difference between Standard Deviation and Standard Error

November 10th, 2023 by

Standard deviation and standard error are statistical concepts you probably learned well enough in Intro Stats to pass the test.  Conceptually, you understand them, yet the difference doesn’t make a whole lot of intuitive sense.

So in this article, let’s explore the difference between the two. We will look at an example, in the hopes of making these concepts more intuitive. You’ll also see why sample size has a big effect on standard error. (more…)


How the Population Distribution Influences the Confidence Interval

September 6th, 2022 by

Spoiler alert, real data are seldom normally distributed. How does the population distribution influence the estimate of the population mean and its confidence interval?

To figure this out, we randomly draw 100 observations 100 times from three distinct populations and plot the mean and corresponding 95% confidence interval of each sample.
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