Estimating with uncertainty

Sampling distributions, standard error, and 95% continence intervals

Sampling distributions

Estimate: an inference about a population parameter based on a subsample of that population. Since samples are only a subset of the entire population, there is a chance that estimates from repeated sampling from that population can be off by a particular amount. We can visualize this uncertainty by plotting a sampling distribution.

For this figure, the true population mean is 43.92 mm.

Standard error: The standard deviation of the sampling distribution.

95% confidence interval: the range likely to contain the true population mean.

# Dealing with uncertainty in R
library(palmerpenguins)
data(penguins)
penguins <- na.omit(penguins)
# If we want to calculate 95% CI using the 2SE convention:
species <- NULL
means <- NULL
std_devs <- NULL
sizes <- NULL
sems <- NULL
cis <- NULL
# Counter
k <- 1
for (i in levels(penguins$species)) {
x <- penguins$bill_length_mm[penguins$species == i]
means[k] <- mean(x)
std_devs[k] <- sd(x)
sizes[k] <- length(x)
sems[k] <- std_devs[k] / sqrt(sizes[k])
cis[k] <- paste(means[k] – 2 * sems[k], means[k] + 2 * sems[k], sep = ",")
species[k] <- paste(i)
k <- k + 1
}
results <- data.frame(species, sizes, means, std_devs, sems, cis)
names(results) <- c("species", "n", "mean", "sd", "se", "ci")
print(results)
# Mean, standard deviation, standard error, and 95% confidence intervals using **t-distribution**
library(Rmisc)
rmisc_results <- summarySE(penguins, measurevar = "bill_length_mm", groupvars = "species")
ci_lower <- rmisc_results$bill_length_mm – rmisc_results$ci
ci_upper <- rmisc_results$bill_length_mm + rmisc_results$ci
print(paste(ci_lower, ci_upper, sep = ","))
view raw uncertainty.r hosted with ❤ by GitHub
R code
# Dealing with uncertainty in Python
import pandas as pd
import numpy as np
from scipy.stats import t
from palmerpenguins import load_penguins
penguins = load_penguins().dropna()
# Split the data frame into groups
groups = penguins.groupby('species')
# Calculate sample means, standard deviations, and standard errors for each group
means = groups['bill_length_mm'].mean()
std_devs = groups['bill_length_mm'].std()
sizes = groups['bill_length_mm'].size()
sems = groups['bill_length_mm'].sem()
# Calculate 95% CIs for each group
cis = {}
for group, mean, std_dev, size, sem in zip(means.index, means, std_devs, sizes, sems):
ci_1 = mean – (2 * sem)
ci_2 = mean + (2 * sem)
cis[group] = ci_1, ci_2
print(cis)
view raw uncertainty.py hosted with ❤ by GitHub
Python code