Evaluating Knowledge-Based Statistical Reasoning

Abstract

Comparisons of reasoning by novices and experts generally suggest that as knowledge increases, general strategies are replaced by the application of systems of knowledge-based concept representation. To assess how training in statistics is associated with the development of “expert” thinking, the relation between general and statistical critical thinking ability was assessed in 50 undergraduates. For students who scored above the median on a final examination of statistical knowledge, formal training was associated with an increase in statistical reasoning and the disappearance of the prior relation between general and statistical reasoning. Students with low knowledge showed neither improved statistical reasoning nor a relation between general and statistical critical thinking either before or after training.