Some interactive Matlab and Python programs for introductory statistics

Here are some interactive tutorial files, designed to illustrate basic concepts in statistics. Running the code opens up an interactive figure window. When you click on a figure to add new points, the statistical tests shown in the figure change accordingly.

Please feel more than free to use the code for teaching, and if you do, please mail me with comments and feedback. (Note added Jan.2012: I am grateful to Prof. Eugene Gallagher of U.Mass Boston for very helpful feedback about the tutorials. His course "Introduction to Applied Statistics" incorporating the Matlab versions of these tutorials can be found on OpenCourseWare, along with the Matlab files.)

The code has lots of comments in it, which attempt to explain the concepts as explicitly as possible. No prior knowledge of Matlab, Python or statistics is assumed.

Here's a YouTube video showing the demos in action:



The Matlab programs require the Matlab statistics toolbox. The Python programs require the SciPy and Matplotlib modules. Probably the easiest way to get these modules all at once is to install the Enthought Python Distribution, which you can get for free if you are at an academic institution, from here. If you are not at an academic institution, you can get them all for free from the individual links above.

The tutorials are:
- interactive_mean_std_normal_distribution.m and interactive_mean_std_normal_distribution.py
- interactive_one_sample_t_test.m and interactive_one_sample_t_test.py
- interactive_two_sample_t_test.m and interactive_two_sample_t_test.py
- interactive_correlation_plot.m and interactive_correlation_plot.py

Screenshots, and some suggested tutorial exercises to try out using the demo code, are below. The suggested exercises can also be found as comments at the beginning of the code the of programs themselves.