Description

Weiss’s Introductory Statistics, is the ideal textbook for introductory statistics classes that emphasise statistical reasoning and critical thinking. Comprehensive in its coverage, Weiss’s meticulous style offers careful, detailed explanations to ease the learning process. With more than 1,000 data sets and over 3,000 exercises, this text takes a data-driven approach that encourages students to apply their knowledge and develop statistical understanding.

This text contains parallel presentation of critical-value and p-value approaches to hypothesis testing. This unique design allows the flexibility to concentrate on one approach or the opportunity for greater depth in comparing the two.

Features

• Real-World Examples illustrate every concept discussed in the text with detailed, compelling examples from real life.
  • You Try It! exercisesfollow most worked examples, allowing students to immediately check their understanding by directing them to a similar exercise to solve on their own.
• Real Data Sources help students see the integration of statistics in everyday life. Neil Weiss has included carefully cited data from reputable journals, newspapers, magazines and websites.
• Helpful text features help readers make sense of the material and provide easy reference for study and review.
  • Interpretation boxes explain the meaning and significance of statistical results in everyday life and highlight the importance of interpreting answers and results.
  • What Does It Mean? boxes explain in plain English the meaning of definitions, formulas, and key facts. This feature also summarises relevant discussions.
  • Procedure Boxes have been enhanced to include the “why, when, and how” of the statistical methods. Each procedure box has a brief identifying title followed by a statement of its purpose (why it’s used), the assumptions for its use (when it’s used), and the steps for applying the procedure (how it’s used).
  • Technology Appendixes help students use Minitab, Excel, and the TI 83/84 Plus graphing calculators.
• Parallel Critical-Value/p-Value Approaches offers complete flexibility in the coverage of critical-value and p-value approaches to hypothesis testing. Instructors can focus on one approach or they can compare both approaches.
• Parallel Presentations of Technology: The Weiss approach offers complete flexibility in the coverage of technology, which includes options for using MINITAB^®, Excel^®, and the TI-83 and TI-84 Plus graphing calculators. One or more technologies can be explored and compared. Instructions and output for each package are included in Technology Centers throughout the book.
• Focusing on Data Analysis sections at the end of each chapter examine the Focus Database, a database of 13 variables describing the undergraduate students at the University of Wisconsin—Eau Claire. This feature lets students work with large data sets, practice using technology, and discover the many methods of exploring and analysing data–both descriptively and inferentially.

New to this Edition

New and updated features

• 50% of the chapter-opening case studies are new for this edition.
• More than 35% of exercises are new, updated, or modified. This edition contains more than 3,000 high-quality exercises, which far exceeds what is found in typical introductory statistics books.
• Expanded! Warm-up Exercises: In this edition, hundreds of “warm-up” exercises have been added. These exercises provide context-free problems that allow students to concentrate solely on the relevant concepts before moving on to applied exercises.
• The WeissStats Resource Site provides an extensive array of resources for both instructors and students, including additional topics, applets, all data sets from the book in multiple formats, a procedures booklet, and technology appendixes. In addition to several new items, the site offers universal access to those items formerly included on the WeissStats CD. Refer to the table of contents for a brief list of the contents of the WeissStats site or visit the site at www.pearsonhighered.com/weiss-stats. Note: Instructor-only resources are available on the Instructor Resource Center at www.pearsonhighered.com/irc.
• Updated! The Technology Center: includes step-by-step instructions for implementing each of three of the most popular applications—Minitab, Excel, and the TI- 83/84 Plus graphing calculators. This content is optional material, but reflects the latest software releases.
• Updated! Technology Appendixes: the appendixes for Excel, Minitab, and the TI-83/84 Plus have been updated to correspond to the latest versions of these three statistical technologies.
• Expanded! Built-in Technology Manuals guide students in using three of the most popular applications: Minitab, Excel, and the TI-83/84 Plus.
• Expanded! TI Programs created by the author allow users of the popular TI-83/84 Plus to perform statistical analysis with their calculators. Those programs are downloadable from the TI Programs section of the WeissStats Resource Site.

Content Updates

• Chebyshev’s Rule and the Empirical Rule: A new (optional) section of Chapter 3 has been added to examine Chebyshev’s rule and the empirical rule. The empirical rule is further examined in Chapter 6 when the normal distribution is discussed.
• Quartiles: The method for calculating quartiles has been modified to make it more easily accessible to students. Furthermore, a dedicated procedure that provides a step-by-step method for finding the quartiles of a data set has been included.
• Distribution Shapes: The material on distribution shapes in Section 2.4 has been significantly modified and clarified. Students will find this revised approach easier to understand and apply.
• Regression Analysis: Major improvements have been made to the chapter on Descriptive Methods in Regression and Correlation. These improvements include a comprehensive discussion of scatterplots, a simpler introduction to the least-squares criterion, and easier introductory examples for the regression equation, the sums of squares and coefficient of determination, and the linear correlation coefficient.
• Expanded! Density Curves: The discussion of density curves has been significantly expanded and now includes several examples and many more exercises.
• Expanded! Type II Error Probabilities and Power: Section 9.7, which covers Type II error probabilities and power, has undergone major revision, including increased visuals and the addition of procedures for calculating Type II error probabilities and for constructing power curves.

MyStatLab not included. Students, if MyStatLab is a recommended/mandatory component of the course, please ask your instructor for the correct ISBN

Table of Contents

• PART I: Introduction
• 1. The Nature of Statistics
• PART II: Descriptive Statistics
• 2. Organizing Data
• 3. Descriptive Measures
• PART III: Probability, Random Variables, and Sampling Distributions
• 4. Probability Concepts
• 5. Discrete Random Variables 
• 6. The Normal Distribution
• 7. The Sampling Distribution of the Sample Mean
• PART IV: Inferential Statistics
• 8. Confidence Intervals for One Population Mean
• 9. Hypothesis Tests for One Population Mean
• 10. Inferences for Two Population Means
• 11. Inferences for Population Standard Deviations 
• 12. Inferences for Population Proportions
• 13. Chi-Square Procedures
• PART V: Regression, Correlation, and ANOVA
• 14. Descriptive Methods in Regression and Correlation
• 15. Inferential Methods in Regression and Correlation
• 16. Analysis of Variance (ANOVA)
• PART VI: Multiple Regression and Model Building; Experimental Design and ANOVA
• MODULE A: Multiple Regression Analysis
• MODULE B: Model Building in Regression
• MODULE C: Design of Experiments and Analysis of Variance
• Answers to Selected Exercises
• Index
• Appendix A: Statistical Tables
• Appendix B: Answers to Selected Exercises