Chapter Introduction

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APPENDIX B

Making Sense of Data:
A Statistics Primer

This appendix is designed to help you understand the analysis of biological data in a statistical context. We outline major concepts involved in the collection and analysis of data, and we present basic statistical analyses that will help you interpret, understand, and complete the Work with the Data and Apply What You’ve Learned problems throughout this book. Understanding these concepts will also help you understand and interpret scientific studies in general. We present formulas for some common statistical tests as examples, but the main purpose of this appendix is to help you understand the purpose and reasoning behind these tests. Once you understand the basis of an analysis, you may wish to use one of many free, online websites for conducting the tests (such as http://vassarstats.net).