Mind on Statistics, 6th Edition

Jessica M. Utts, Robert F. Heckard

Copyright 2022
{{checkPublicationMessage('Published', '2021-01-01T00:00:00+0000')}}

Starting At $77.95 See pricing and ISBN options

Instructor Next Steps

Students: Buy now

Mind on Statistics 6th Edition by Jessica M. Utts/Robert F. Heckard

Quick Navigation

Overview
Meet the Authors
What's New
Features
Table of Contents
Pricing

Overview

Engage your students' natural curiosity and motivate them to learn statistics with the intriguing questions, interesting examples and meaningful explanations in Utts/Heckard's MIND ON STATISTICS, 6th Edition. This edition focuses on interpreting results, encouraging students to develop statistical intuition. The authors place the conceptual development of statistical ideas into context, highlighting the importance of looking for -- and finding -- meaning in data that impacts daily life. Student develop statistical literacy while learning the statistical methodology taught in introductory courses. For example, hypothesis testing is now presented as a method for guiding decision-making rather than as a method for achieving statistical significance. The authors also explain common misunderstandings and provide tips for making sense of statistics in the news. In addition, WebAssign provides a Statistical Analysis and Learning Tool (SALT) to help students gain a deeper understanding of statistics.

Meet the Authors

{{collapseContainerClosed['meet-the-author'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

Jessica M. Utts

Jessica Utts is professor emerita of statistics at the University of California at Irvine. She received her B.A. in math and psychology at SUNY Binghamton and her M.A. and Ph.D. in statistics at Penn State University. Aside from MIND ON STATISTICS, Dr. Utts has authored SEEING THROUGH STATISTICS and co-authored STATISTICAL IDEAS AND METHODS, both published by Cengage Learning. Dr. Utts has been active in the statistics education community at the high school and college levels. She served as chair of the Advanced Placement Statistics Development Committee and as Chief Reader for the A.P. Statistics Exam. In 2016 she was the president of the American Statistical Association, the largest professional organization in the world for statisticians. She is a recipient of the Academic Senate Distinguished Teaching Award and the Magnar Ronning Award for Teaching Excellence, both at the University of California at Davis. She is also a fellow of the American Statistical Association, the Institute of Mathematical Statistics, the American Association for the Advancement of Science and the Association for Psychological Science. Beyond statistics education, Dr. Utts’s major contributions have been in applying statistics to a variety of disciplines, most notably to parapsychology, the laboratory study of psychic phenomena. She has appeared on numerous television shows, including Larry King Live, ABC's Nightline, CNN Morning News and 20/20.

Robert F. Heckard

Robert F. Heckard is a retired senior lecturer in statistics at the Pennsylvania State University. In his 36-year career at Penn State, he taught introductory statistics courses for undergraduate students as well as applied statistics courses for students at the senior and graduate level. His advanced teaching included courses in regression analysis, analysis of variance, experimental design, nonparametric statistics, time series analysis, multivariate analysis, analysis of clinical trials and statistical computing. At Penn State, Dr. Heckard received the Eberly College of Science Innovative Teaching award and the Schreyer Institute for Teaching Excellence Collaborative Course Design award. He was also awarded several university grants to develop multimedia and web-based instructional materials for teaching statistical concepts. Aside from MIND ON STATISTICS, he is the co-author of STATISTICAL IDEAS AND METHODS, published by Cengage Learning. Dr. Heckard has been an active consultant in the statistical analysis and design of cancer treatment clinical trials and highway safety research.

What's New

{{collapseContainerClosed['whats-new'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

STATISTICAL ANALYSIS AND LEARNING TOOL (SALT) TURNS STUDENTS INTO STATISTICAL THINKERS. This easy-to-use data analysis tool was created by Cengage specifically for today's introductory-level student. Dynamic graphics guide the user in manipulating data sets in order to visualize statistics and gain a deeper conceptual understanding of the meaning behind the data. For convenient access, SALT is integrated into WebAssign Statistics or is available to use as a standalone.
REVISED COVERAGE OF HYPOTHESIS TESTING CLARIFIES MISCONCEPTIONS. This edition's presentation of hypothesis testing is extensively revised to clarify misconceptions about p-values and statistical significance. This new coverage keeps your course consistent with current statistical practice and research journal guidelines.
NEW DISCUSSION EXPLORES MULTIVARIABLE THINKING AND INTRODUCES LOGISTICAL REGRESSION. New content on multivariable thinking teaches students to think with data as well as pose and answer statistical questions. In addition, a new introduction to logistical regression within this edition's chapter on inference about simple regression (Ch. 14) shows students how to use this mathematical model to estimate probability when working with binary data.
NEW GENDER-SENSITIVE WORDING REFLECTS GENDER INCLUSIVENESS. The authors have carefully revised all wording in this edition to ensure the presentation is welcoming to all readers.
NEW COVERAGE ADDRESSES RANDOMIZATION TESTS, RESAMPLING AND BOOTSTRAP CONFIDENCE INTERVALS. Students learn another way to examine data with additional coverage of randomization tests now included in Chapters 4, 12 and 13. In addition, the authors now discuss resampling and bootstrap confidence intervals within Chapters 10 and 11 to ensure thorough coverage of statistical methods.
NEW EXAMPLES, CASE STUDIES AND UPDATES HIGHLIGHT THE RELEVANCE OF STATISTICS IN LIFE TODAY. Thirty-seven new examples and case studies bring the latest applications from actual life into this edition. In addition, updates to data throughout this edition's numerous examples, case studies and exercises ensure students are working with the latest information available.
MORE THAN 125 NEW EXERCISES PROVIDE FOCUSED PRACTICE. These new exercises strengthen the wealth of exercises and applications already integrated throughout this edition. Updates to existing exercises reinforce this edition's revised coverage of hypothesis testing or incorporate the latest data.
REBUILT SIMULATIONS OFFER AN IMPROVED USER EXPERIENCE. Students apply the statistical principles they've learned with this edition's simulations that are now revised to more closely mirror what statisticians use in professional environments. Students practice modeling random events and compare how simulated outcomes match real-world outcomes.
EXPANDED DISCUSSIONS HIGHLIGHT STATISTICAL DECISION-MAKING IN USE WITHIN RESEARCH AND DAILY LIFE. New information added to Chapters 12 and 17 clearly demonstrates for students how statistics can enhance the decision-making process.
MORE THAN 20% OF WEBASSIGN QUESTIONS ARE NOW INTEGRATED INTO SALT. Key questions appear within SALT, the book's new Statistical Analysis and Learning Tool, making it even more valuable to students as a study aid.

Features

{{collapseContainerClosed['features'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

COMPELLING EXAMPLES AND REAL-LIFE CASE STUDIES ENGAGE AND MOTIVATE STUDENTS TO LEARN. Students clearly see the value and importance of the statistical topics as they apply principles to professional and personal life. The authors also present concepts within a larger context, reinforcing the text's premise that material is easier to learn if it can be related to something interesting or previously learned.
BOOK OPENS AND CLOSES WITH UNIQUE, INSPIRING EXAMPLES OF STATISTICS AT WORK. These opening and closing chapters (Chapters 1 and 17) almost exclusively depict case studies that draw readers into the subject matter. These chapters clearly illustrate how statistical methods contribute to today's understanding of health, psychology, commerce, ecology, politics, music, lifestyle choices and dozens of other topics.
UNIQUE APPROACH EMPHASIZES USING AND UNDERSTANDING THE IMPORTANCE OF STATISTICS IN DAILY LIFE. Each chapter reinforces the power of statistical information and its influence on decisions. For instance, the authors demonstrate how explaining medical tests today often includes terms such as sensitivity and specificity. Students have likely heard these terms used in current news.
CORE MATERIAL ON SAMPLING DISTRIBUTIONS AND STATISTICAL INFERENCE APPEARS IN MODULAR FORMAT FOR YOUR FLEXIBILITY. Chapters 9-13 provide six modules that discuss each of the topics for sampling distributions, confidence intervals and hypothesis testing. The first module provides an introduction, while each of the remaining five modules deals with a specific parameter. This modular format emphasizes the similarity among the inference procedures for the five parameters discussed, and allows you to cover this material in any order you choose.
EXERCISE SETS ARE ORGANIZED INTO ODD-EVEN PAIRS. This edition's odd-numbered problems offer answers at the back of the book, ideal for students to check their own understanding. Corresponding even-numbered problems do not offer in-book solutions, making them well suited for you, the instructor, to check and grade progress.
“IN SUMMARY” BOXES REINFORCE KEY IDEAS AS STUDENTS READ. The summary boxes, placed consistently throughout each chapter, provide helpful review and study aids. A complete list of all “In Summary” boxes appears at the end of each chapter, making these features extremely convenient tools for students preparing for tests or quizzes.
PROBING "THOUGHT QUESTIONS" ENCOURAGE STUDENTS TO EXPLORE ENGAGING TOPICS FURTHER. These questions provoke higher-level thinking while offering hints on how to solve challenges. The engaging questions provide students with opportunities to explore a topic further and discover and verify important ideas for themselves.
ALL PROBLEM SETS, EXAMPLES AND CASE STUDIES INTEGRATE THE LATEST DATA. Regular updates to content ensure students are working with current data and have an accurate understanding of today's statistical uses. In addition to updated data sets, the authors regularly research and add new examples and case studies to keep content current and representative of the latest advancements and trends.
"TECHNOLOGY TIPS" GUIDE STUDENTS IN USING MINITAB®, SPSS®, EXCEL®, JMP™, AND TI-83/84 CALCULATORS EFFECTIVELY. These brief, helpful tips appear throughout this edition, providing quick yet pertinent insights into making the best use of MINITAB®, SPSS®, Excel®, JMP™ and TI-83/84 calculators. For further assistance, technical manuals for these technologies, as well as for R, are available on this edition's companion website.
SIMULATION ACTIVITIES HELP STUDENTS EXPLORE KEY STATISTICAL TOPICS. These activities, described at the end of many of the printed edition's chapters, are available on the book's companion website. The simulations offer hands-on practice and allow students to explore statistics on their own.

{{collapseContainerClosed['table-of-contents'] ? 'Show More' : 'Show Less'}}

1. Statistics Success Stories and Cautionary Tales.
2. Turning Data into Information.
3. Relationships between Quantitative Variables.
4. Relationships between Categorical Variables.
5. Sampling: Surveys and How to Ask Questions.
6. Gathering Useful Data for Examining Relationships.
7. Probability.
8. Random Variables.
9. Understanding Sampling Distributions: Statistics as Random Variables.
10. Estimating Proportions with Confidence.
11. Estimating Means with Confidence.
12. Testing Hypotheses about Proportions.
13. Testing Hypotheses about Means.
14. Inference about Simple Regression.
15. More about Inference for Categorical Variables.
16. Analysis of Variance.
17. Turning Information into Wisdom.