Section 7: Wrap-up and Interactive Demonstration of Statistical Software and Data Analysis

Instructor: Frank Harrell

This session consists of an interactive demonstration of R software for initial graphical inspection of data as well as final summarization of results, using a variety of graphical methods. The limited graphical capabilities of other software such as Microsoft Excel will be described, and the unreliability of Excel for statistical calculations is discussed.

Pitfalls in data analysis, especially misuse of P -values and choosing the wrong descriptive statistics will be overviewed. There will also be time for participants to ask questions about material covered in any previous sessions.

Handouts

Learning Objectives

  1. To discuss capabilities of statistical graphics software and how it can be used to inspect, explore, and summarize data.
  2. To understand tradeoffs that must be made when choosing statistical software.
  3. To become introduced to some ways that a statistician begins to examine data in an exploratory fashion.
  4. To clarify any remaining issues from the entire course, especially interpretation and shortcomings of P -values.

Required Reading

Recommended Reading

Topic revision: r4 - 01 Sep 2008, FrankHarrell
 

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