Excel auxiliary material


Classroom task I


Classroom task II


After opening the auxiliary excel file above we created cross tables using the button Insert/Pivot table. We encountered the famous Simpson paradox. Neglecting the issue of statistical significance (we will address this issue soon) we observed that the overall performance of the men was better, however, the women performed better in both universities. We also gave an explanation: the women preferred the more difficult university. This example taught us that in observational studies we have to be careful with the cause and effect explanations of statistical relationships.

After that we created the second workbook above. It demonstrated visually that hypothesis testing helps us to distinguish between the following two possibilities: (a) the null hypothesis is correct, random fluctuation explains the deviation from the expected (b) the cause of the deviation is that the null hypothesis is false. We learned that the sign $ converts the relative reference to absolute one (after clicking beside the referenced cell in the equation the type of reference can be altered by pressing the F4 key). We also learned how multiple-valued functions work. First we have to type the equation in the first cell of the target area, then we have to trace out the whole target area, and finally, we have to press ctrl+shift+enter.