Statistical Understanding of Undergraduate Students

Sunseri, Sophia

Statistical Understanding of Undergraduate Students

Author(s)

Sunseri, Sophia

Date Issued

April 5, 2023

Abstract

Statistical cognition is the processes, representations, and activities involved in acquiring and using statistical knowledge by looking at: (1) how people acquire/use statistical knowledge, (2) how they should think about statistical concepts, as well as (3) closing the gap between the previous two ideas (Cumming et al., 2008). This paper looked at the connections between statistical cognition, prior knowledge, statistical self-efficacy, major discipline, and gender. Participants were provided with a statistical self-efficacy questionnaire designed to measure their belief in their ability to complete statistical tasks. Participants then completed a statistical cognition survey designed to measure how much knowledge the students have about key statistical concepts. Results revealed no significant difference in statistical cognition across disciplines.Furthermore, their prior knowledge in statistics did not significantly affect statistical cognition scores. However, the gender of the participant did have a statistically significant effect on self-efficacy, in that women had lower self-efficacy scores than men. This information tells us that statistical education across disciplines may be fairly consistent, prior experience does not limit someone’s knowledge, and women are suffering from the stereotype threat which leads them to believe they cannot excel in math as well as men can even if their scores reveal otherwise.

Major

Psychology

Honors

Psychology, 2023

First Reader(s)

Normile, Christopher