Basic Psychological Statistics

Okay, I think this should work! In order to make sure everyone is feeling comfortable with their basic statistical methods, I'm having you complete some questions as you view the presentation below (you should have received these in class). As a bonus, since I was trying to finish up the recording during the lunch hour, at the very end you can hear the main office making announcements...that's how close I was cutting it.

Additionally, if you feel you want more practice matching correlational coefficients with scatterplots, here's the link to the website we used in class today.

Good luck! Be sure to make a note of any questions you have so I can address them tomorrow if needed. :)

Having troubles playing the video? If the player above doesn't work, try here.

PsychSim: Descriptive Stats

I realized as I was falling asleep last night that I had told people I would post this link before leaving school...and then didn't. I hope it didn't interfere with your ability to access the PsychSim Module on Descriptive Statistics, since the link for PsychSim modules is always in the "course links" section of the blog.

But in case it did, I'll take the worksheets tomorrow, too, if need be. My apologies...

Scientists Identify Brain Areas Linked to Emotion in Dead Fish?

Even if this piece of recent psych research didn't reveal such interesting principles about the use of fMRI in researching the functions of specific brain regions, it would be worth sharing just for its hilariousness.

A team of neuroscientists, led by Craig Bennett of the University of California, Santa Barbara recently conducted an fMRI on a dead fish (specifically, an Atlantic salmon) while showing it pictures of people. The result: statistically significant registers of electrical activity in the fish's tiny brain!

Whoa! The brains of dead fish respond when their unliving eyes are forced to stare at pictures of humans?! Not so fast....

The researchers are not claiming some sort of zombie-like post-mortem affection fish display toward humans. Rather, they are using this result to point out that sometimes fMRI's give false positives because of how much data they are able to report. They suggest that the cutoff for statistical significance (normally a p-value of .05) when using fMRI's may need to be lowered. In other words, the currently accepted level of risk that results occurred by sheer chance (p-value) may be too high for the amount of data being collected by these sophisticated techniques: they are likely to show statistically significant activity when, in actuality, it's not there (as in the dead fish).

My favorite part of this research? The cool title the researchers chose for their project: "Neural correlates of interspecies perspective taking in the post-mortem Atlantic salmon: An argument for multiple perspectives comparison." Nice work, fellows!

Click here to see the poster presentation on this research.

A Failing Economy...And Fewer Shark Attacks?

Savvy psychology students know that correlation does not equal causation. Here's more proof if you need it.

In a perfect example of how a "hidden third factor" can explain both variables in a correlation, shark attacks have apparently decreased with the declining U.S. economy. Is is because sharks pay attention to the Dow Jones Industrial average? No. Nor do they have more pity on penniless surfers.

Follow the link to find out why Shark Attacks Decline: Ailing Economy to Blame