The aim of this study is to explore the judgments and reasoning in probabilistic tasks that require comparing two probabilities either with or without introducing an additional degree of uncertainty. The reasoning associated with the task having an additional condition of uncertainty has not been discussed in previous studies. The 66 undergraduate…

Although Bayesian methodology has become a powerful approach for describing uncertainty, it has largely been avoided in undergraduate statistics education. Here we demonstrate that one can present Bayes' Rule in the classroom through a hypothetical, yet realistic, legal scenario designed to spur the interests of students in introductory- and…

Mike Shaughnessy is Professor Emeritus of Mathematics and Statistics at Portland State University in Oregon. He served as co-chair for the Board for the Special Interest Group for Research in Mathematics Education of the American Educational Research Association from 2005-2007. A member of the Board of Directors of the National Council of Teachers…

The "Price Is Right" ("TPIR") provides a wealth of material for studying statistics at various levels of mathematical sophistication. The authors have used elements of this show to motivate students from undergraduate probability and statistics courses to graduate level executive management courses. The material consistently generates a high…

The classroom activity described here allows mathematically mature students to explore the role of mean, median and mode in a decision-making environment. While students discover the importance of choosing a measure of central tendency, their understanding of probability distributions, maximization, and prediction is reinforced through active…