Comprehending Behavioral Statistics

Comprehending Behavioral Statistics

This isn't just another variation on the same theme--this textbook offers something new and better for the course. Hurlburt's unique, eyeball-estimation techniques, introduced in the first edition of this text, have won praise from faculty and students. Hurlburt's approach trains students to think critically and discriminate among various statistical techniques. Using Hurlburt's methods, students learn to "read" a graph of data and quickly predict what the statistic will show. Hurlburt also effectively uses repetition and a progressive, cumulative integration of concepts, so students build upon what they learn as they progress through the course rather than learning individual topics in isolation. Hurlburt's approach not only motivates students, but instills in them a true conceptual understanding of what's going on behind the mechanical calculations of statistical procedures. This new edition retains those elements that make the text so noteworthy, while it incorporates more "traditional" content and computer exercises that can be worked with standard statistical packages such as SPSS, SAS, or Minitab. Responding to the comments of users, Hurlburt has modified his presentation of the eyeball-estimation techniques -- emphasizing them in the descriptive statistics sections, but de-emphasizing them in the inferential statistics sections.