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Inferential statistics or statistical induction comprises the use of statistics to make inferences concerning some unknown aspect of a population. It is distinguished from descriptive statistics.

Two schools of inferential statistics are frequency probability and Bayesian inference.

[edit] See also

• Descriptive statistics
• Induction (philosophy)

[edit] Definition

Statistical inference is inference about a population from a random sample drawn from it or, more generally, about a random process from its observed behavior during a finite period of time. It includes:

1. point estimation
2. interval estimation
3. hypothesis testing (or statistical significance testing)
4. Inferential statistics and prediction

There are several distinct schools of thought about the justification of statistical inference. All are based on some idea of what real world phenomena can be reasonably modeled as probability.

1. frequency probability
2. Bayesian probability
3. eclectic probability

The topics below are usually included in the area of statistical inference.

1. Statistical assumptions
2. Likelihood principle
3. Estimating parameters
4. Statistical hypothesis testing
5. Revising opinions in statistics
6. Planning statistical research
7. Summarizing statistical data

[edit] See also

• Statistical significance
• Null hypothesis
• False positive
• False negative
• Statistical mediation

es:Estadística inferencial

fa:آمار استنباطی fr:Inférence statistique it:Inferenza statistica ja:推計統計学 pl:Wnioskowanie statystyczne pt:Inferência estatística

This page uses content from the English-language version of Wikipedia. The original article was at Statistical_inference. The list of authors can be seen in the page history. As with Psychology Wiki, the text of Wikipedia is available under the GNU Free Documentation License.