A Triptych of Statistics

[摘要] Statistical Computing, An Introduction to Data Analysis Using S-Plus. Michael J. Crawley. Chichester, UK: Wiley UK, 2002 (reprinted, with corrections, March 2003), 772 pp., $85.00, hardcover. ISBN 0-471-56040-5.The Statistical Evaluation of Medical Tests for Classification and Prediction. Margaret S. Pepe. New York: Oxford University Press, 2003, 320 pp., $115.00, hardcover. ISBN 0-19-850984-7.Introductory Biostatistics. Chap T. Le. Hoboken, NJ: Wiley-Interscience, A John Wiley & Sons Publication, 2003, 572 pp., $94.95, hardcover. ISBN 0-471-41816-1.You always need to know ten times as much as you use —Quoted by E.A. Murphy in Biostatistics in Medicine (1982)Teaching data analysis is not easy, and the time, allowed is always far from sufficient —J.W. Tukey (1962)As junior medical students in Glasgow in the 1950s, we learned statistics from a poor lecturer and an excellent book (M.J. Moroney, Facts from Figures , Penguin, 1951). Unfortunately this was before the availability of calculators, and therefore, no effort was made to use these techniques to examine the results we were currently producing in the practical classes of physiology and biochemistry. We therefore benefited little from that early exposure except to remember the t -distribution because of its association with beer.I thought of Moroney’s book when I opened Crawley’s Statistical Computing . Both volumes are written in lively style; are lucid, comprehensive, and rigorous; and are illuminated throughout with flashes of dry humor. Crawley is a distinguished ecologist and a member of the Department of Biological Sciences at Imperial College in London, England, and has been involved in the teaching and research applications of statistical techniques for many years. One difference between Facts from Figures and Statistical Computing is now the ready availability of the computer, which allows a reader of the latter text to examine data and assess their statistical significance while using the …

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