Meaning and use of confidence intervals意义与使用的置信区间.pptVIP

To put your footer here go to View Header and Footer Meaning and use of confidence intervals (Session 05) Learning Objectives By the end of this session, you will be able to explain the meaning of a confidence interval explain the role of the t-distribution in computing a confidence interval for the population mean calculate a confidence interval for the population mean using sample data state the assumptions underlying the above calculation Revision on standard errors Recall from the previous session that The standard error provides a measure of the precision of the sample mean the formula s/?n gives the standard error of the mean when simple random sampling is used A low standard error indicates that the sample mean has high precision, i.e. the sample mean is a “good” estimate of the population mean Standard errors more generally… Whenever sample data is used to find an estimate of a popn parameter, it should be accompanied by a measure of its precision! The formula s/?n applies only when using as an estimate of the population mean ?. Formulae will differ for other estimates, depending on how the sample was selected. The higher the standard error, the less precise is the estimate - but how high should it be before we start to get worried about our estimate? Confidence Interval for ? Instead of using a point estimate, it is usually more informative to summarise using an interval which is likely (i.e. with 95% confidence) to contain ?. This is called an interval estimate or a confidence interval (C.I.) For example, we could report that the mean landholding size of HHs in Kilindi district in Tanzania is 7.62 acres with 95% confidence interval (6.95, 8.28), i.e. there is a 95% chance that the interval (6.95,8.28) includes the true value ?. Finding the Confidence Interval The 95% confidence limits for ? (lower and upper) are calculated as: and t-values for computation of 95% C.I. Correct interpretation of C.I.’s An example (persons per room) Underlyi