Blog 10

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Statistics 

Variable 

Variable type

Why that type?

How might you analyse this?

ID

Nominal 

It is a descriptive code, describing the name of an animal.

You can count the number of times the individual was observed.

Sex 

Nominal 

The gender categories cannot be labelled in order. It is a feature they have.

You can observe them and see their gender from there. As the data table suggests, it’s difficult to analyse the gender of infants

Tree Species

Nominal 

It is a category, describing the type of trees. This allows researchers to find out where they eat from, and which tree is best suited for them.

Observe the slow loris’ movements between the trees. 

Date 

Discrete 

It comes from a whole number and must fit into certain categories 

By registering the pattern of days. 

No. of Substrates

Discrete 

Because they are going to be on 1, 2, 3 etc branches, not 1.5 branches. This data would be good for zoos to be able to mimic

Observing where the primates move and what they do, e.g which trees they are on. 

Cloud cover

Ordinal 

Because the cloud cover is put into an order and will go from high cover to low cover. 

Measure the cover of clouds in percentages. If it is very cloudy, it’d be 100% cover so that would be ordered as high. This can be done by observation. 

Reflection:

I found this exercise easier than expected due to the way Professor Anna Nekaris explained it as she made sure to not overcomplicate it. This allowed me to have a better understanding on statistics, which increased my confidence on a topic I did not feel overly confident in before. The idea of statistics is a good way of gaining an understanding as they provide an informed set of data. This activity was much easier when it has been explained and put time into understanding and not feeling overwhelmed by the amount of data that is shown. 

This exercise did change my attitude towards statistics/ data as it broke the stigma I had of what statistics was, something to avoid! I have a much better outlook on statistics as I never had it explained in a simplistic way, which just created confusion. I am much more willing to explore data/ statistics as I know understand the importance it can have in order to build your knowledge on a certain topic. For example, with this exercise, it would not have been possible to understand that amount of information that was in the table, without the use of statistics/ data. 

















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