Tag Archives: cats

Hellbent on Measurement

Posted on December 28, 2016 by statswithcats

Any variable that you record in a dataset will have some scale of measurement. Scales of measurement are, simply put, the ways that associated numbers relate to each other. Scales are properties of numbers, not the objects being measured. You … Continue reading →

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Searching for Answers

Posted on September 26, 2016 by statswithcats

Need to find something out, just Google it. Now that Google is a verb as well as a noun, it’s easy. But … It Hasn’t Always Been Easy Adults under 30, Millennials, grew up with smartphones, laptop and tablet computers, … Continue reading →

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How to Write Data Analysis Reports in Six Easy Lessons

Posted on July 10, 2016 by statswithcats

In every data analysis, putting the analysis and the results into a comprehensible report is the final, and for some, the biggest hurdle. The goal of a technical report is to communicate information. However, the technical information is difficult to … Continue reading →

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Ten Ways Statistical Models Can Break Your Heart

Posted on June 23, 2016 by statswithcats

Models are beautiful. The ways their features are combined sets them apart from each other.  Each has its own personality, sometimes pleasant, sometimes not, and often not what you would expect. Here are ten ways your love affair with statistical … Continue reading →

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Looking for Insight through a Window

Posted on January 10, 2016 by statswithcats

At a press briefing on February 12, 2002, then Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld addressed the absence of evidence linking the government of Iraq with weapons of mass destruction: There are known knowns. There are things we know that we … Continue reading →

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It’s Hard to be a Data-Driven Organization

Posted on July 21, 2015 by statswithcats

Why is it so Hard? Do you work for a data-driven organization, or one that claims to be a data-driven organization, or one that wants to be a data-driven organization? You probably do, whether you work for a big retailer … Continue reading →

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Posted on July 19, 2015 by statswithcats
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How to Tell if Correlation Implies Causation

Posted on January 1, 2015 by statswithcats

You’ve probably heard the admonition: Correlation Does Not Imply Causation. Everyone agrees that correlation is not the same as causation. However, those two words — correlation and causation — have generated quite a bit of discussion. Why Causality Matters No … Continue reading →

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Why You Don’t Always Get the Correlation You Expect

Posted on November 2, 2014 by statswithcats

If you’ve ever taken a statistics class on correlation, you’ve probably come to expect that a large value for a correlation coefficient, either positive or negative, means that there is a noteworthy relationship between two phenomena. This is not always … Continue reading →

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O.U..T…L….I……E……..R………………..S

Posted on October 13, 2014 by statswithcats

Datasets may contain values that is far greater (or less) than, or doesn’t display the same characteristics as the other values. If the influential observation is not representative of the population being sampled, it is called an outlier. Deciding what to do with outliers can be a challenge for data analysts. Continue reading →

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