Statistics and Statistical Programming (Spring 2019)/Problem Set: Week 1: Difference between revisions

Latest revision as of 21:29, 3 April 2019

Programming Challenges[edit]

Because this is our first week, there are no real programming challenges this week. Instead, these are some setup tasks you can do before class to prepare you to complete future programming challenges.

PC1. Download and install R — You can do that from this webpage where you will have to choose based on your operating system.

PC2. Download and install RStudio — Download and run the "installer" from the "Installers" sections of the RStudio download page. You'll want to choose the one that is appropriate for your operating systems (e.g., Windows, Mac OSX, or GNU/Linux).

PC3. (a) Create and save a new RStudio "Project" ('.Rproj'). Then, within your new project, (b) create and save a new RMarkdown file ('.Rmd'). Finally, (c) write a combination of text notes and R code in your RMarkdown file and "knit" the output into HTML.

PC4. Compress everything from your project into a "zip" archive (feel free to use some other compression format if you like) and upload it to Canvas.

Statistical Questions (from OpenIntro)[edit]

Exercises from OpenIntro (Diez, Barr, and Çetinkaya-Rundel) §1

SQ0. Any questions or clarifications from the OpenIntro text or lecture notes?

SQ1. Exercise 1.6 about identifying cases, variables, types, and research questions

SQ2. Exercise 1.12 about populations, samples, and generalizability

SQ3. Exercise 1.52 about means and medians from a histogram

SQ4. Exercise 1.56 about skewness and choosing appropriate statistics

SQ5. Exercise 1.64 about selecting certain types of visualization over others

Several of these questions draw from Study 4 of the following paper (although I don't think it's critical to look at the paper to answer the questions):

Piff, Paul K., Daniel M. Stancato, Stéphane Côté, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner. 2012. “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 109(11):4086–91. [Available through NU Libraries]

Empirical Paper Questions[edit]

Read the following paper and answer the questions below Please be prepared to identify parts of the paper that support your claims.

Kramer, Adam D. I., Jamie E. Guillory, and Jeffrey T. Hancock. 2014. “Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion through Social Networks.” Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences 111(24):8788–90. [Open access]

EQ1. Identify (a) the cases, (b) the variables and their types, and (c) the main research question of this piece.

EQ2. (a) What do the treatment and control groups consist of in this study? (b) What type of sampling does the study use? (c) Describe the experimental manipulation.

EQ3. Identify (a) the population of interest and (b) the sample used in the study. (c) Do you think that this study can be generalized from the sample to the population?

EQ4. There is one figure in the paper (Figure 1). Walk us through the figure and explain what it represents and reflects.

EQ5. (a) Summarize the results of the study. (b) What is the size of the effect? Is this meaningful? (c) Describe what you think the important takeaway from the paper is.

@@ Line 5: / Line 5: @@
 :'''PC1.''' Download and install R — You can do that from [https://cran.rstudio.com/ this webpage] where you will have to choose based on your operating system.
 :'''PC2.''' Download and install RStudio — Download and run the "installer" from the "Installers" sections of [https://www.rstudio.com/products/rstudio/download/ the RStudio download page]. You'll want to choose the one that is appropriate for your operating systems (e.g., Windows, Mac OSX, or GNU/Linux).
-:'''PC3.''' Create and save a new RStudio "Project" ('.Rproj') that includes a new RMarkdown file ('.Rmd'). Write some text notes and R code in your RMarkdown file and "knit" the output into a PDF.
+:'''PC3.''' (a) Create and save a new RStudio "Project" ('.Rproj'). Then, within your new project, (b) create and save a new RMarkdown file ('.Rmd'). Finally, (c) write a combination of text notes and R code in your RMarkdown file and "knit" the output into HTML.
-:'''PC4.''' Compress everything from your project into a "zip" archive (feel free to use some other compression tool if you like) and upload it to Canvas.
+:'''PC4.''' Compress everything from your project into a "zip" archive (feel free to use some other compression format if you like) and [https://canvas.northwestern.edu/courses/90927/assignments/577504 upload it to Canvas].
 <!---
@@ Line 14: / Line 14: @@
 --->
-== Statistical Questions ==
+== Statistical Questions (from OpenIntro) ==
-=== Exercises from OpenIntro §1 ===
+'''Exercises from OpenIntro (Diez, Barr, and Çetinkaya-Rundel) §1'''
 :'''SQ0.''' Any questions or clarifications from the OpenIntro text or lecture notes?
@@ Line 24: / Line 24: @@
 :'''SQ5.''' Exercise 1.64 about selecting certain types of visualization over others
-Several of these questions draw from Study 4 of the following paper (although I don't think it critical to look back at that paper to answer of the questions):
+Several of these questions draw from Study 4 of the following paper (although I don't think it's critical to look at the paper to answer the questions):
 :Piff, Paul K., Daniel M. Stancato, Stéphane Côté, Rodolfo Mendoza-Denton, and Dacher Keltner. 2012. “Higher Social Class Predicts Increased Unethical Behavior.” ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 109(11):4086–91. [[http://www.pnas.org/content/109/11/4086.full Available through NU Libraries]]
-=== Empirical Paper ===
+== Empirical Paper Questions ==
-Hopefully many of you will have read this paper already. It's probably the most highly cited (and publicly discussed) paper to come out of communication over the last few years:
+Read the following paper and answer the questions below Please be prepared to identify parts of the paper that support your claims.
-:Kramer, Adam D. I., Jamie E. Guillory, and Jeffrey T. Hancock. 2014. “Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion through Social Networks.” ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 111(24):8788–90. [[http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full Available through NU libraries]]
+:Kramer, Adam D. I., Jamie E. Guillory, and Jeffrey T. Hancock. 2014. “Experimental Evidence of Massive-Scale Emotional Contagion through Social Networks.” ''Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences'' 111(24):8788–90. [[http://www.pnas.org/content/111/24/8788.full Open access]]
-Although there are major ethical concerns with the paper, and we'll be coming back and talking about it a number of times this quarter, let's focus on the key issues of research design and the substantive takeaway.
-For this paper, answer each of these questions and be ready to cite parts of the paper that support each claim:
+<!---
+Some of you may have read this paper already. It's among the most highly cited (and publicly discussed) paper to come out of communication over the last few years. I believe we will talk about it a few times this quarter, so for now please focus on the research design and substantive takeaways.
+--->
 :'''EQ1.''' Identify (a) the cases, (b) the variables and their types, and (c) the main research question of this piece.
 :'''EQ2.''' (a) What do the treatment and control groups consist of in this study? (b) What type of sampling does the study use? (c) Describe the experimental manipulation.