Is That a Fact?: A Field Guide for Evaluating and Statistical and Scientific Information - Softcover

Battersby, Mark

Softcover

ISBN 10: 1551115875 ISBN 13: 9781551115870

Verlag: Broadview Press Ltd, 2010

Inhaltsangabe

Is that a Fact? teaches students how to think critically about scientific and statistical information. The goal of the text is not only to teach readers how to identify misleading use of statistics, but also to give readers the understanding necessary to evaluate and use statistical and statistically based scientific information. Is that a Fact? teaches students how to think critically about scientific and statistical information.

The goal of the text is not only to teach students how to identify statistical fallacies, but also to give students the understanding necessary to evaluate and use statistical and statistically based scientific information. The availability of information on the Web means that laypeople can now access primary research with remarkable ease. But this access is meaningful only if they know how to evaluate the claims. While avoiding all statistical formalism, this text provides students with a useable understanding of statistical and scientific reasoning.

This understanding should enable them not only to evaluate information from polls and scientific studies, but also to make use of this understanding in their own decision making. It does not suppose a mathematical or technical background. It focuses on making reasonable use of statistical information, not merely avoiding being misled. Cartoons are used to illustrate concepts. It also includes illustrations.

Über diesen Titel

Über die Autorin bzw. den Autor

Mark Battersby is Professor of Philosophy at Capilano College.

Von der hinteren Coverseite

We are inundated by scientific and statistical information, but what should we believe? How much should we trust the polls on the latest electoral campaign? When a physician tells us that a diagnosis of cancer is 90% certain or a scientist informs us that recent studies support global warming, what should we conclude? How can we acquire reliable statistical information? Once we have it, how do we evaluate it? Despite the importance of these questions to our lives, many of us have only a vague idea of how to answer them.In this admirably clear and engaging book, Mark Battersby provides a practical guide to thinking critically about scientific and statistical information. The goal of the book is not only to explain how to identify misleading statistical information, but also to give readers the understanding necessary to evaluate and use statistical and statistically based scientific information in their own decision making.

Details zur Ausgabe

• Verlag: Broadview Press Ltd
• Erscheinungsdatum: 2010
• ISBN 10: 1551115875
• ISBN 13: 9781551115870
• Einband: Tapa blanda
• Sprache: Englisch
• Anzahl der Seiten: 240
• Kontakt zum Hersteller: Nicht verfügbar