What They Don't Know Can Hurt You: Improving Statistical Knowledge

2007 ◽  
Author(s):  
Heather L. Silvio ◽  
Catherine Romero ◽  
Ray Hays
Keyword(s):  
Statistical Knowledge

On the Crystal Chemistry of Inorganic Nitrides: Crystal-Chemical Parameters and Opportunities in the Exploration of Their Compositional Space

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olivier Charles Gagné
Keyword(s):  
Functional Properties ◽  
A Priori ◽  
Lone Pair ◽  
Length Variation ◽  
Electronic Effects ◽  
Statistical Knowledge ◽  
Redox Active ◽  
Multiply Bonded ◽  
Jahn Teller ◽  
Compositional Space

The scarcity of nitrogen in Earth’s crust, combined with challenging synthesis, have made inorganic nitrides a relatively-unexplored class of compounds compared to their naturally-abundant oxide counterparts. To facilitate exploration of their compositional space via <i>a priori</i> modeling, and to help <i>a posteriori</i> structure verification not limited to inferring the oxidation state of redox-active cations, we derive a suite of bond-valence parameters and Lewis-acid strength values for 76 cations observed bonding to N<sup>3-</sup>, and further outline a baseline statistical knowledge of bond lengths for these compounds. We examine structural and electronic effects responsible for the functional properties and anomalous bonding behavior of inorganic nitrides, and identify promising venues for exploring uncharted compositional spaces beyond the reach of high-throughput computational methods. We find that many mechanisms of bond-length variation ubiquitous to oxide and oxysalt compounds (e.g., lone-pair stereoactivity, the Jahn-Teller and pseudo Jahn-Teller effects) are similarly pervasive in inorganic nitrides, and are occasionally observed to result in greater distortion magnitude than their oxide counterparts. We identify inorganic nitrides with multiply-bonded metal ions as a promising venue in heterogeneous catalysis, e.g. in the development of a post-Haber-Bosch process proceeding at milder reaction conditions, thus representing further opportunity in the thriving exploration of the functional properties of this emerging class of materials.<br>

scholarly journals Quantification and classification in education: What is at stake?

2021 ◽  
pp. 147821032110320
Author(s):  
Ann Christin Eklund Nilsen ◽  
Ove Skarpenes
Keyword(s):  
Sociology Of Knowledge ◽  
Central Place ◽  
Social Phenomenon ◽  
Ian Hacking ◽  
The Public ◽  
Statistical Knowledge ◽  
The Social ◽  
State Bureaucracy ◽  
The Public Sphere ◽  
Different Levels

Histories of statistics and quantification have demonstrated that systems of statistical knowledge participate in the construction of the objects that are measured. However, the pace, purpose, and scope of quantification in state bureaucracy have expanded greatly over the past decades, fuelled by (neoliberal) societal trends that have given the social phenomenon of quantification a central place in political discussions and in the public sphere. This is particularly the case in the field of education. In this article, we ask what is at stake in state bureaucracy, professional practice, and individual pupils as quantification increasingly permeates the education field. We call for a theoretical renewal in order to understand quantification as a social phenomenon in education. We propose a sociology-of-knowledge approach to the phenomenon, drawing on different theoretical traditions in the sociology of knowledge in France (Alain Desrosières and Laurent Thévenot), England (Barry Barnes and Donald MacKenzie), and Canada (Ian Hacking), and argue that the ongoing quantification practice at different levels of the education system can be understood as cultural processes of self-fulfilling prophecies.

scholarly journals Finding the pattern: online extraction of spatial structure during virtual navigation

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kathryn Nicole Graves ◽  
James Antony ◽  
Nicholas Turk-Browne
Keyword(s):  
Spatial Distribution ◽  
Animal Behavior ◽  
Virtual Water ◽  
Single Session ◽  
Statistical Knowledge ◽  
Navigation Patterns ◽  
The Mean ◽  
Online Extraction ◽  
Human Participants ◽  
The Individual

While navigating the world, we pick up on patterns of where things tend to appear. According to theories of memory and studies of animal behavior, knowledge of these patterns emerges gradually over days or weeks, via consolidation of individual navigation episodes. Here we discover that navigation patterns can also be extracted online, prior to the opportunity for offline consolidation, as a result of rapid statistical learning. Human participants navigated a virtual water maze in which platform locations were drawn from a spatial distribution. Within a single session, participants increasingly navigated through the mean of the distribution. This behavior was better simulated by random walks from a model with only an explicit representation of the current mean, compared to a model with only memory for the individual platform locations. These results suggest that participants rapidly summarized the underlying spatial distribution and used this statistical knowledge to guide future navigation.

scholarly journals Seven Steps Toward Transparency and Replicability in Psychological Science

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. Stephen Lindsay
Keyword(s):  
Measurement Error ◽  
Publication Bias ◽  
Effect Size ◽  
Statistical Tests ◽  
Research Practices ◽  
Psychological Science ◽  
Statistical Knowledge

Psychological scientists strive to advance understanding of how and why we animals do and think and feel as we do. This is difficult, in part because flukes of chance and measurement error obscure researchers’ perceptions. Many psychologists use inferential statistical tests to peer through the murk of chance and discern relationships between variables. Those tests are powerful tools, but they must be wielded with skill. Moreover, research reports must convey to readers a detailed and accurate understanding of how the data were obtained and analyzed. Research psychologists often fall short in those regards. This paper attempts to motivate and explain ways to enhance the transparency and replicability of psychological science. Specifically, I speak to how publication bias and p hacking contribute to effect-size exaggeration in the published literature, and how effect-size exaggeration contributes, in turn, to replication failures. Then I present seven steps toward addressing these problems: Telling the truth; upgrading statistical knowledge; standardizing aspects of research practices; documenting lab procedures in a lab manual; making materials, data, and analysis scripts transparent; addressing constraints on generality; and collaborating.

scholarly journals A estatística na educação profissional numa perspectiva da educação estatística crítica

2017 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Malcus Cassiano Kuhn ◽  
Arno Bayer
Keyword(s):  
High School ◽  
Qualitative Study ◽  
Professional Education ◽  
Statistical Research ◽  
Statistical Education ◽  
Statistical Knowledge ◽  
Student Interests ◽  
Teaching Professional ◽  
Administration Students

Resumo: O artigo discute o ensino da estatística em um Curso Técnico em Administração, subsequente ao Ensino Médio, de um Câmpus do Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Sul-rio-grandense. É um estudo qualitativo, fundamentado na teoria da Aprendizagem Significativa Crítica e nos princípios da Educação Estatística Crítica. Apresenta-se uma proposta de ensino que articula os conhecimentos estatísticos teóricos com o estudo de casos reais e de interesse dos alunos, através do desenvolvimento de uma pesquisa estatística. Essa foi desenvolvida de agosto a dezembro de 2015 e envolveu 14 alunos do 3º semestre do Curso Técnico em Administração. Os alunos desenvolveram as etapas de uma pesquisa estatística, desde a definição do tema até a apresentação dos resultados para a turma e o professor. Foi um processo em que o professor atuou como mediador e os alunos como protagonistas, num ambiente de ressignificação de conhecimentos e desenvolvimento de competências e habilidades relacionadas à estatística e ao Curso Técnico em Administração.Palavras-chave: Ensino da Estatística. Educação Profissional. Educação Estatística Crítica. Aprendizagem Significativa Crítica. STATISTICS IN THE PROFESSIONAL EDUCATION IN A PERSPECTIVE OF THE CRITICAL STATISTICAL EDUCATIONAbstract: The article discusses the teaching of statistics in a Technical Course in Administration, subsequent to the high school, of a Campus of the Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Sul-rio-grandense. It is a qualitative study, based on the theory of the Critical Significant Learning and on the principles of the Critical Statistical Education. It presents a teaching proposal that articulates the theoretical statistical knowledge with the study of real cases and of student interests, through the development of a statistical research. This was developed from August to December 2015 and involved 14 students of the 3rd semester of the Technical Course in Administration. Students developed the stages of a statistical research, since the theme definition up to presentation of results to the class and to the teacher. It was a process in which the teacher acted as a mediator and the students as protagonists, in a re-signification environment of knowledge and development of skills and abilities related to statistics and to the Technical Course in Administration.Keywords: Statistics Teaching. Professional Education. Critical Statistical Education. Critical Significant Learning.

Predictability-dependent encoding of statistical regularities in the early visual cortex

2022 ◽  
Author(s):  
Andrea Kóbor ◽  
Karolina Janacsek ◽  
Petra Hermann ◽  
Zsofia Zavecz ◽  
Vera Varga ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Visual Cortex ◽  
The Other ◽  
Block Type ◽  
Statistical Knowledge ◽  
Early Visual Cortex ◽  
Statistical Regularities ◽  
Visual Cortical ◽  
Increased Activity ◽  
The Brain ◽  
Subsequent Task

Previous research recognized that humans could extract statistical regularities of the environment to automatically predict upcoming events. However, it has remained unexplored how the brain encodes the distribution of statistical regularities if it continuously changes. To investigate this question, we devised an fMRI paradigm where participants (N = 32) completed a visual four-choice reaction time (RT) task consisting of statistical regularities. Two types of blocks involving the same perceptual elements alternated with one another throughout the task: While the distribution of statistical regularities was predictable in one block type, it was unpredictable in the other. Participants were unaware of the presence of statistical regularities and of their changing distribution across the subsequent task blocks. Based on the RT results, although statistical regularities were processed similarly in both the predictable and unpredictable blocks, participants acquired less statistical knowledge in the unpredictable as compared with the predictable blocks. Whole-brain random-effects analyses showed increased activity in the early visual cortex and decreased activity in the precuneus for the predictable as compared with the unpredictable blocks. Therefore, the actual predictability of statistical regularities is likely to be represented already at the early stages of visual cortical processing. However, decreased precuneus activity suggests that these representations are imperfectly updated to track the multiple shifts in predictability throughout the task. The results also highlight that the processing of statistical regularities in a changing environment could be habitual.

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