In the last years special "ovals" appear increasingly often in diagrams and applets for discussing crucial items of statistical inference (when dealing with confidence intervals for an unknown probability p; approximation of the binomial distribution by the normal distribution; especially in German literature, see e.g. [Meyer,…

A single discrete random variable is depicted by a stick diagram, a 2D picture. Naturally, to visualize a bivariate discrete distribution, one can use a bivariate stick diagram, a 3D picture. Unfortunately, many students have difficulty understanding and processing 3D pictures. Therefore, we construct an alternative 2D disc plot to depict the…

Practitioners and policymakers often want estimates of the effect of an intervention for their local community, e.g., region, state, county. In the ideal, these multiple population average treatment effect (ATE) estimates will be considered in the design of a single randomized trial. Methods for sample selection for generalizing the sample ATE to…

Development of graphical methods for representing data has not kept up with progress in statistical techniques. This article presents a brief history of graphical representations of research findings and makes the case for a revival of methods developed in the early and mid-twentieth century, notably ISOTYPE and Chernoff's faces. It resurrects and…

Network meta-analysis has been an essential methodology of systematic reviews for comparative effectiveness research. The restricted maximum likelihood (REML) method is one of the current standard inference methods for multivariate, contrast-based meta-analysis models, but recent studies have revealed the resultant confidence intervals of average…

Before embarking on an individual participant data meta-analysis (IPDMA) project, researchers should consider the power of their planned IPDMA conditional on the studies promising their IPD and their characteristics. Such power estimates help inform whether the IPDMA project is worth the time and funding investment, before IPD are collected. Here,…

It is said that a picture is worth a thousand words, but what about graphs? Although graphs have the potential to bring data to life, numerous studies show that learners struggle with graphical comprehension. Furthermore, many textbook examples on graphs are boring and appear meaningless to students. Students want to know more about something…

This is the fourth in a series of statistical articles for mathematics teachers. In this article, the authors discuss topics in General Mathematics in Unit 2 Topic 1 (Univariate data analysis and the statistical investigation process) and topics in Essential Mathematics, Unit 2 Topic 1 (Representing and comparing data).

Background/Context: Pass/fail standardized exams frequently selectively rescore failing exams and retest failing examinees. This practice distorts the test score distribution and can confuse those who do analysis on these distributions. In 2011, the Wall Street Journal showed large discontinuities in the New York City Regent test score…