1.1 Exploring Data

All statistical investigations follow a process called the Statistical Enquiry Cycle.

This cycle contain five sections known as PPDAC:

Problem: Understanding and defining the problem.
Plan: How will we measure and record data.
Data: How will we collect, measure and clean data.
Analysis: Sorting data into readable outputs and looking for patterns.
Conclusion: Interpretation and communication of findings.

Our world is full of variation. When we collect data, we want to identify key sources of variation that might affect the variables that we are interested in exploring and investigating.

 When gathering data it is important to isolate the variable, minimizing any other sources of variation. This way we can ensure that only the change in our explanatory variable, is impacting our response variable.

• You want to keep conditions the same each time you collect data.

• If possible, take repeat-measurements.

• Keep each person on the same task. (don't switch measures)

• Use the same measuring tools/instruments.