文章基本信息

标题：Do Larger Samples Really Lead to More Precise Estimates? A Simulation Study
本地全文：下载
作者：Nestor Asiamah ; Henry Kofi Mensah ; Eric Fosu Oteng-Abayie 等
期刊名称：American Journal of Educational Research
印刷版ISSN：2327-6126
电子版ISSN：2327-6150
出版年度：2017
卷号：5
期号：1
页码：9-17
DOI：10.12691/education-5-1-2
出版社：Science and Education Publishing
摘要：In this paper, we use simulated data to find out if larger samples support estimation of population parameters by examining whether or not higher samples give rise to more precise estimates of population parameters. We simulated a normally distributed dataset and randomly drew 73 samples from it. Some basic statistics, namely the mean, standard deviation, standard error of the mean, confidence interval and the one-sample t-test significance were computed under some conditions for all samples. The correlation between sample size and each of these statistics was computed, among other statistical treatments. Our analysis suggests that larger samples produce estimates that better approximate the population parameters. The correlation between sample size and standard error of the mean is even stronger. We therefore conclude that larger samples lead to more precise estimates.
关键词：sampling; sample size; population parameters; sample statistics; statistical estimation