Statistical Methods The Geometric Approach

A novel exposition of the analysis of variance and regression. The key feature here is that these tools are viewed in their natural mathematical setting - the geometry of finite dimensions. This is because geometry clarifies the basic statistics and unifies the many aspects of analysing variance and regression.

Are you an applied researcher or a statistics student? If so, have you ever wondered if there is any rhyme or reason behind the apparent jumble of ad hoc statistical “recipes” that are most commonly used by researchers? If you have, then this book is for you! Within its pages, the rhyme and reason are explained in a surprisingly simple, visual and appealing manner. The statistical methods referred to are those based on the “Normal” distribution. They include the paired and independent samples t tests, analysis of variance, and regression. The rhyme is explained by analysing four case studies, one for each of these topics. The key to the rhyme is to use elementary vector geometry. Then the crucial ideas are easily explained by drawing right-angled triangles and applying Pythagoras' Theorem. “Keep it simple” has been our aim. The geometric ideas are first introduced and applied to data sets in two and three dimensions, before we gently introduce higher dimensional examples. Throughout, we use real data sets taken from real research studies, and take care to explain the interpretation of the statistical analyses. In this way, the book integrates the algebraic, numeric, geometric and practical aspects of these basic statistical methods.We hope that many students as well as practicing researchers and statisticians will enjoy this novel visual approach to these ideas.

Applied Statistical Methods covers the fundamental understanding of statistical methods necessary to deal with a wide variety of practical problems. This 14-chapter text presents the topics covered in a manner that stresses clarity of understanding, interpretation, and method of application. The introductory chapter illustrates the importance of statistical analysis. The next chapters introduce the methods of data summarization, including frequency distributions, cumulative frequency distributions, and measures of central tendency and variability. These topics are followed by discussions of the fundamental principles of probability, the concepts of sample spaces, outcomes, events, probability, independence of events, and the characterization of discrete and continuous random variables. Other chapters explore the distribution of several important statistics; statistical tests of hypotheses; point and interval estimation; and simple linear regression. The concluding chapters review the elements of single- and two-factor analysis of variance and the design of analysis of variance experiments. This book is intended primarily for advanced undergraduate and graduate students in the mathematical, physical, and engineering sciences, as well as in economics, business, and related areas. Researchers and line personnel in industry and government will find this book useful in self-study.

From the reviews: "In this Lecture Note volume the author describes his differential-geometric approach to parametrical statistical problems summarizing the results he had published in a series of papers in the last five years. The author provides a geometric framework for a special class of test and estimation procedures for curved exponential families. ... ... The material and ideas presented in this volume are important and it is recommended to everybody interested in the connection between statistics and geometry ..." #Metrika#1 "More than hundred references are given showing the growing interest in differential geometry with respect to statistics. The book can only strongly be recommended to a geodesist since it offers many new insights into statistics on a familiar ground." #Manuscripta Geodaetica#2

The aim of this book is to present the mathematics underlying elementary statistical methods in as simple a manner as possible. These methods include independent and paired sample t-tests, analysis of variance, regression, and the analysis of covariance. The author's principle tool is the use of geometric ideas to provide more visual insight and to make the theory accessible to a wider audience than is usually possible.

Geometric Data Analysis (GDA) is the name suggested by P. Suppes (Stanford University) to designate the approach to Multivariate Statistics initiated by Benzécri as Correspondence Analysis, an approach that has become more and more used and appreciated over the years. This book presents the full formalization of GDA in terms of linear algebra - the most original and far-reaching consequential feature of the approach - and shows also how to integrate the standard statistical tools such as Analysis of Variance, including Bayesian methods. Chapter 9, Research Case Studies, is nearly a book in itself; it presents the methodology in action on three extensive applications, one for medicine, one from political science, and one from education (data borrowed from the Stanford computer-based Educational Program for Gifted Youth ). Thus the readership of the book concerns both mathematicians interested in the applications of mathematics, and researchers willing to master an exceptionally powerful approach of statistical data analysis.

A traditional approach to developing multivariate statistical theory is algebraic. Sets of observations are represented by matrices, linear combinations are formed from these matrices by multiplying them by coefficient matrices, and useful statistics are found by imposing various criteria of optimization on these combinations. Matrix algebra is the vehicle for these calculations. A second approach is computational. Since many users find that they do not need to know the mathematical basis of the techniques as long as they have a way to transform data into results, the computation can be done by a package of computer programs that somebody else has written. An approach from this perspective emphasizes how the computer packages are used, and is usually coupled with rules that allow one to extract the most important numbers from the output and interpret them. Useful as both approaches are--particularly when combined--they can overlook an important aspect of multivariate analysis. To apply it correctly, one needs a way to conceptualize the multivariate relationships that exist among variables. This book is designed to help the reader develop a way of thinking about multivariate statistics, as well as to understand in a broader and more intuitive sense what the procedures do and how their results are interpreted. Presenting important procedures of multivariate statistical theory geometrically, the author hopes that this emphasis on the geometry will give the reader a coherent picture into which all the multivariate techniques fit.

From the reviews: "In this Lecture Note volume the author describes his differential-geometric approach to parametrical statistical problems summarizing the results he had published in a series of papers in the last five years. The author provides a geometric framework for a special class of test and estimation procedures for curved exponential families. ... ... The material and ideas presented in this volume are important and it is recommended to everybody interested in the connection between statistics and geometry ..." #Metrika#1 "More than hundred references are given showing the growing interest in differential geometry with respect to statistics. The book can only strongly be recommended to a geodesist since it offers many new insights into statistics on a familiar ground." #Manuscripta Geodaetica#2