Introductory Statistics (9th Edition)

Book Preface

Using and understanding statistics and statistical procedures have become required skills in virtually every profession and academic discipline. The purpose of this book is to help students master basic statistical concepts and techniques and to provide real-life opportunities for applying them.

Audience and Approach

Introductory Statistics is intended for one- or two-semester courses or for quarter-system courses. Instructors can easily fit the text to the pace and depth they prefer. Introductory high school algebra is a sufficient prerequisite.
Although mathematically and statistically sound (the author has also written books at the senior and graduate levels), the approach does not require students to examine complex concepts. Rather, the material is presented in a natural and intuitive way. Simply stated, students will find this book’s presentation of introductory statistics easy to understand.

About This Book

Introductory Statistics presents the fundamentals of statistics, featuring data production and data analysis. Data exploration is emphasized as an integral prelude to inference.
This edition of Introductory Statistics continues the book’s tradition of being on the cutting edge of statistical pedagogy, technology, and data analysis. It includes hundreds of new and updated exercises with real data from journals, magazines, newspapers, and Web sites.
The following Guidelines for Assessment and Instruction in Statistics Education (GAISE), funded and endorsed by the American Statistical Association are supported and adhered to in Introductory Statistics:
Emphasize statistical literacy and develop statistical thinking.

Use real data.

Stress conceptual understanding rather than mere knowledge of procedures.
Foster active learning in the classroom.
Use technology for developing conceptual understanding and analyzing data.
Use assessments to improve and evaluate student learning.

Changes in the Ninth Edition

The goal for this edition was to make the book even more flexible and user-friendly (especially in the treatment of hypothesis testing), to provide modern alternatives to some of the classic procedures, to expand the use of technology for developing understanding and analyzing data, and to refurbish the exercises. Several important revisions are as follows.

New Case Studies. Fifty percent of the chapter-opening case studies have been New!
replaced.
New and Revised Exercises. This edition contains more than 2600 high-quality New!
exercises, which far exceeds what is found in typical introductory statistics books. Over 25% of the exercises are new, updated, or modified. Wherever appropriate, routine exercises with simple data have been added to allow students to practice fundamentals.
Reorganization of Introduction to Hypothesis Testing. The introduction to hypoth-Revised!
esis testing, found in Chapter 9, has been reworked, reorganized, and streamlined. P-values are introduced much earlier. Users now have the option to omit the material on critical values or omit the material on P-values, although doing the latter would impact the use of technology.
Revision of Organizing Data Material. The presentation of organizing data, found Revised!
in Chapter 2, has been revised. The material on grouping and graphing qualitative data is now contained in one section and that for quantitative data in another section. In addition, the presentation and pedagogy in this chapter have been made consistent with the other chapters by providing step-by-step procedures for performing required statistical analyses.
Density Curves. A brief discussion of density curves has been included at the be-New!
ginning of Chapter 6, thus providing a presentation of continuous distributions corresponding to that given in Chapter 5 for discrete distributions.
Plus-Four Confidence Intervals for Proportions. Plus-four confidence-interval pro-New!
cedures for one and two population proportions have been added, providing a more accurate alternative to the classic normal-approximation procedures.
Chi-Square Homogeneity Test. A new section incorporates the chi-square homo-New!
geneity test, in addition to the existing chi-square goodness-of-fit test and chi-square independence test.
Nonparametic Procedures. Some of the more difficult aspects of nonparametric tests Revised!
have been clarified and expanded. Additional examples have been provided to solidify understanding.
Course Management Notes. New course management notes (CMN) have been pro-New!
duced to aid instructors in designing their courses and preparing their syllabi. The CMN are located directly after the preface in the Instructor’s Edition of the book and can also be accessed from the Instructor Resource Center (IRC) located at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
Note: See the Technology section of this preface for a discussion of technology additions, revisions, and improvements.