Bias and Variability Preview CT-STEM

Bias

On the previous pages you probably noticed that the center of the "Mean" sampling distribution lined up pretty closely with the center of the actual population distribution. However, the center of the "Max" and "Min" sampling distribution did not match up with the actual maximum and minimum of the population. The statistics "Max" and "Min" are examples of BIASED estimators. The mean of their sampling distribution is not equal to the actual value of the population parameter.

Questions

Please answer the questions below.

Question 3.1

Do you think the mean is a biased estimator? Explain your reasoning.

Question 3.2

On the next page we'll use the same model but increase the size of our sample (n). What do you think will happen to the sampling distribution? How will that show up in the model?

Question 3.3

On the next page you'll be asked to use the model to see how sample size affects the variability of the sampling distribution.

Make a plan for how you'll use the model to investigate this question.

Notes

These notes will appear on every page in this lesson so feel free to put anything here you'd like to keep track of.